knew, and he knew, that I never did. I was not
wholly indifferent, for I had a hope of being pleasant and useful to
Tom. But Tom had been the subject of all the little tenderness of my
life, perhaps he became so because I knew so well how to pity him. It
matters little now, except as it may dispose you to think more leniently
of his errors."

"What can I do, child? Ask me what you will."

"I am coming to it. Father, chance has thrown into my way a new
acquaintance; a man such as I had had no experience of--light, polished,
easy. I only wondered it should be worth his while, who cared for
nothing else, to care so much for me. It matters little how he gained my
confidence. Father, he did gain it. What you know of the story of my
marriage he soon knew just as well."

Her father's face was ashy white.

"I have done no worse; I have not disgraced you. This night, my husband
being away, he has been with me. This minute he expects me, for I could
release myself of his presence by no other means. I do not know that I
am sorry or ashamed. All that I know is, your philosophy and your
teaching will not save me. Father, you have brought me to this. Save me
by some other means?"

She fell insensible, and he saw the pride of his heart and the triumph
of his system lying at his feet. And it came to Thomas Gradgrind that
night and on the morrow when he sat beside his daughter's bed, that
there was a wisdom of the heart no less than a wisdom of the head; and
that in supposing the latter to be all sufficient, he had erred.

But no such change of mind took place in Mr. Bounderby. Finding his wife
absent, he went at once to Stone Lodge, and blustered in his usual way.

Mr. Gradgrind tried to make him understand that the best thing to do was
to leave things as they were for a time, and that Louisa, who had been
so tried, should stay on a visit to her father, and be treated with
tenderness and consideration. It was all wasted on Blunderby.

"Now, I don't want to quarrel with you, Tom Gradgrind!" he retorted. "If
your daughter, whom I made Loo Bounderby, and might have done better by
leaving Loo Gradgrind, don't come home at noon to-morrow, I shall
understand that she prefers to stay away, and you'll take charge of her
in future. What I shall say to people in general of the incompatibility
that led to my so laying down the law will be this: I am Josiah
Bounderby, she's the daughter of Tom Gradgrind; and the two horses
wouldn't pull