herself "Mrs. Pegler," and who had often been seen standing
looking fixedly at the bank. What more natural than to suspect her?

Then another rumor began to grow. Stephen Blackpool, discharged from the
mill by Bounderby himself--the workman who had been shunned by all his
comrades, to whom no one spoke--he had been seen recently loitering,
night after night, near the robbed bank. Where was he? Gone, none knew
where!

In an hour Stephen was suspected. By the next day half of Coketown
believed him guilty.

III

HARTHOUSE'S PLAN FAILS

Two persons, however, had a suspicion of the truth. One of these was the
porter of the bank, whose suspicion was strong. The other was Louisa,
who, though her love denied it room, hid in her secret heart a fear that
her brother had had a share in the crime. In the night she went to Tom's
bedside, put her arms around him and begged him to tell her any secret
he might be keeping from her. But he answered sullenly that he did not
know what she meant.

Mrs. Sparsit's fine-bred nerves (so she insisted) were so shaken by the
robbery that she came to Bounderby's house to remain till she recovered.

The feeble, pink-eyed bundle of shawls that was Mrs. Gradgrind,
happening to die at this time, and Louisa being absent at her mother's
funeral, Mrs. Sparsit saw her opportunity. She had never forgiven
Louisa for marrying Bounderby, and she now revenged herself by a course
of such flattery that the vulgar bully began to think his cold, proud
wife much too regardless of him and of his importance.

What pleased the hawk-faced old busybody most was the game the suave
Harthouse was playing, which she was sharp enough to see through at
once. If Louisa would only disgrace herself by running away with
Harthouse, thought Mrs. Sparsit, Bounderby might be free again and she
might marry him. So she watched narrowly the growing intimacy between
them, hoping for Louisa's ruin.

There came a day when Bounderby was summoned on business to London, and
Louisa stayed meanwhile at the Bounderby country house, which lay some
distance from Coketown. Mrs. Sparsit guessed that Harthouse would use
this chance to see Louisa alone, and, to spy upon her, took the train
herself, reaching there at nightfall.

She went afoot from the station to the grounds, opened the gate softly
and crept close to the house. Here and there in the dusk, through garden
and wood, she stole, and at length she found what she sought. There
u