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particular interest and pleasure, and has long hoped that the time
might ultimately arrive when he should offer you his hand in
marriage. That time, to which he has so long, and certainly with
great constancy, looked forward, is now come. Mr Bounderby has
made his proposal of marriage to me, and has entreated me to
make it known to you, and to express his hope that you will take it
into your favourable consideration. Silence between them. The
deadly-statistical clock very hollow. The distant smoke very black
and heavy.
 Father, said Louisa,  do you think I love Mr Bounderby? Mr
Gradgrind was extremely discomfited by this unexpected question.
 Well, my child, he returned,  I- really- cannot take upon myself to
say.  Father, pursued Louisa in exactly the same voice as before,
 do you ask me to love Mr Bounderby?  My dear Louisa, no. No. I
ask nothing.  Father, she still pursued,  does Mr Bounderby ask
me to love him?
 Really, my dear, said Mr Gradgrind,  it is difficult to answer your
question-  Difficult to answer it, Yes or No, father?  Certainly, my
dear. Because ; here was something to demonstrate, and it set him
up again;  because the reply depends so materially, Louisa, on the
sense in which we use the expression. Now, Mr Bounderby does
not do you the injustice, and does not do himself the injustice, of
pretending to anything fanciful, fantastic or (I am using
synonymous terms) sentimental. Mr Bounderby would have seen
you grow up under his eyes, to very little purpose, if he could so
far forget what is due to your good sense, not to say to his, as to
address you from any such ground. Therefore, perhaps the
expression itself- I merely suggest this to you, my dear- may be a
little misplaced.  What would you advise me to use in its stead,
father?  Why, my dear Louisa, said Mr Gradgrind, completely
recovered by this time,  I would advise you (since you ask me) to
consider this question, as you have been accustomed to consider
every other question, simply as one of tangible Fact. The ignorant
and the giddy may embarrass such subjects with irrelevant fancies,
81
and other absurdities that have no existence, properly viewed-
really no existence- but it is no compliment to you to say, that you
know better. Now, what are the Facts of this case? You are, we will
say in round numbers, twenty years of age; Mr Bounderby is, we
will say in round numbers, fifty. There is some disparity in your
respective years, but in your means and positions there is none; on
the contrary, there is a great suitability. Then the question arises, Is
this one disparity sufficient to operate as a bar to such a marriage?
In considering this question, it is not unimportant to take into
account the statistics of marriage, so far as they have yet been
obtained, in England and Wales. I find on reference to the figures,
that a large proportion of these marriages are contracted between
parties of very unequal ages, and that the elder of these contracting
parties is, in rather more than three-fourths of these instances, the
bridegroom. It is remarkable as showing the wide prevalence of
this law, that among the natives of the British possessions in India,
also in a considerable part of China, and among the Calmucks of
Tartary, the best means of computation yet furnished us by
travellers, yield similar results. The disparity I have mentioned,
therefore, almost ceases to be disparity, and (virtually) all but
disappears.  What do you recommend, father, asked Louisa, her
reserved composure not in the least affected by these gratifying
results,  that I should substitute for the term I used just now? For
the misplaced expression?  Louisa, returned her father,  it appears
to me that nothing can be plainer.
Confining yourself rigidly to Fact, the question of Fact you state to
yourself is: Does Mr Bounderby ask me to marry him? Yes, he
does. The sole remaining question then is: Shall I marry him? I
think nothing can be plainer than that.  Shall I marry him?
repeated Louisa, with great deliberation. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]