“You don't mistrust her now, Rachael?”
“Now that you have brought us more together, no. But I can't at all times keep out of my mind—”
Her voice so sunk into a low and slow communing with herself, that Sissy, sitting by her side, was obliged to listen with attention.
“I can't at all times keep out of my mind, mistrustings of some one. I can't think who “tis, I can't think how or why it may be done, but I mistrust that some one has put Stephen out of the way. I mistrust that by his coming back of his own accord, and showing himself innocent before them all, some one would be confounded, who—to prevent that—has stopped him, and put him out of the way.”
“That is a dreadful thought,” said Sissy, turning pale.
“It is a dreadful thought to think he may be murdered.”
Sissy shuddered, and turned paler yet.
“When it makes its way into my mind, dear,” said Rachael, “and it will come sometimes, though I do all I can to keep it out, wi” counting on to high numbers as I work, and saying over and over again pieces that I knew when I were a child—I fall into such a wild, hot hurry, that, however tired I am, I want to walk fast, miles and miles. I must get the better of this before bed-time. I'll walk home wi” you.”
“He might fall ill upon the journey back,” said Sissy, faintly offering a worn-out scrap of hope; “and in such a case, there are many places on the road where he might stop.”
“But he is in none of them. He has been sought for in all, and he's not there.”
“True,” was Sissy's reluctant admission.
“He'd walk the journey in two days. If he was footsore and couldn't walk, I sent him, in the letter he got, the money to ride, lest he should have none of his own to spare.”
“Let us hope that to-morrow will bring something better, Rachael. Come into the air!”
Her gentle hand adjusted Rachael's shawl upon her shining black hair in the usual manner of her wearing it, and they went out. The night being fine, little knots of Hands were here and there lingering at street corners; but it was supper-time with the greater part of them, and there were but few people in the streets.
“You're not so hurried now, Rachael, and your hand is cooler.”
“I get better, dear, if I can only walk, and breathe a little fresh. “Times when I can't, I turn weak and confused.”
“But you must not begin to fail, Rachael, for you may be wanted at any time to stand by Stephen. To-morrow is Saturday. If no news comes to-morrow, let us walk in the country on Sunday morning, and strengthen you for another week. Will you go?”
“Yes, dear.”
They were by this time in the street where Mr. Bounderby's house stood. The way to Sissy's destination led them past the door, and they were going straight towards it. Some train had newly arrived in Coketown, which had put a number of vehicles in motion, and scattered a considerable bustle about the town. Several coaches were rattling before them and behind them as they approached Mr. Bounderby's, and one of the latter drew up with such briskness as they were in the act of passing the house, that they looked round involuntarily. The bright gaslight over Mr. Bounderby's steps showed them Mrs. Sparsit in the coach, in an ecstasy of excitement, struggling to open the door; Mrs. Sparsit seeing them at the same moment, called to them to stop.
“It's a coincidence,” exclaimed Mrs. Sparsit, as she was released by the coachman. “It's a Providence ! Come out, ma'am!” then said Mrs. Sparsit, to some one inside, “come out, or we'll have you dragged out!”
Hereupon, no other than the mysterious old woman descended. Whom Mrs. Sparsit incontinently collared.
“Leave her alone, everybody!” cried Mrs. Sparsit, with great energy. “Let nobody touch her. She belongs to me. Come in, ma'am!” then said Mrs. Sparsit, reversing her former word of command. “Come in, ma'am, or we'll have you dragged in!”
The spectacle of a matron of classical deportment, seizing an ancient woman by the throat, and hauling her into a dwelling-house, would have been under any circumstances, sufficient temptation to all true English stragglers so blest as to witness it, to force a way into that dwelling-house and see the matter out. But when the phenomenon was enhanced by the notoriety and mystery by this time associated all over the town with the Bank robbery, it would have lured the stragglers in, with an irresistible attraction, though the roof had been expected to fall upon their heads. Accordingly, the chance witnesses on the ground, consisting of the busiest of the neighbours to the number of some five-and-twenty, closed in after Sissy and Rachael, as they closed in after Mrs. Sparsit and her prize; and the whole body made a disorderly irruption into Mr. Bounderby's dining-room, where the people behind lost not a moment's time in mounting on the chairs, to get the better of the people in front.
“Fetch Mr. Bounderby down!” cried Mrs. Sparsit. “Rachael, young woman; you know who this is?”
“It's Mrs. Pegler,” said Rachael.
“I should think it is!” cried Mrs. Sparsit, exulting. “Fetch Mr. Bounderby. Stand away, everybody!” Here old Mrs. Pegler, muffling herself up, and shrinking from observation, whispered a word of entreaty. “Don't tell me,” said Mrs. Sparsit, aloud. “I have told you twenty times, coming along, that I will not leave you till I have handed you over to him myself.”
Mr. Bounderby now appeared, accompanied by Mr. Gradgrind and the whelp, with whom he had been holding conference up-stairs. Mr. Bounderby looked more astonished than hospitable, at sight of this uninvited party in his dining-room.
“Why, what's the matter now!” said he. “Mrs. Sparsit, ma'am?”
“Sir,” explained that worthy woman, “I trust it is my good fortune to produce a person you have much desired to find. Stimulated by my wish to relieve your mind, sir, and connecting together such imperfect clues to the part of the country in which that person might be supposed to reside, as have been afforded by the young woman, Rachael, fortunately now present to identify, I have had the happiness to succeed, and to bring that person with me—I need not say most unwillingly on her part. It has not been, sir, without some trouble that I have effected this; but trouble in your service is to me a pleasure, and hunger, thirst, and cold a real gratification.”
Here Mrs. Sparsit ceased; for Mr. Bounderby's visage exhibited an extraordinary combination of all possible colours and expressions of discomfiture, as old Mrs. Pegler was disclosed to his view.
“Why, what do you mean by this?” was his highly unexpected demand, in great warmth. “I ask you, what do you mean by this, Mrs. Sparsit, ma'am?”
“Sir!” exclaimed Mrs. Sparsit, faintly.
“Why don't you mind your own business, ma'am?” roared Bounderby. “How dare you go and poke your officious nose into my family affairs?”
This allusion to her favourite feature overpowered Mrs. Sparsit. She sat down stiffly in a chair, as if she were frozen; and with a fixed stare at Mr. Bounderby, slowly grated her mittens against one another, as if they were frozen too.
“My dear Josiah!” cried Mrs. Pegler, trembling. “My darling boy! I am not to blame. It's not my fault, Josiah. I told this lady over and over again, that I knew she was doing what would not be agreeable to you, but she would do it.”
“What did you let her bring you for? Couldn't you knock her cap off, or her tooth out, or scratch her, or do something or other to her?” asked Bounderby.
“My own boy! She threatened me that if I resisted her, I should be brought by constables, and it was better to come quietly than make that stir in such a'—Mrs. Pegler glanced timidly but proudly round the walls—'such a fine house as this. Indeed, indeed, it is not my fault! My dear, noble, stately boy! I have always lived quiet, and secret, Josiah, my dear. I have never broken the condition once. I have never said I was your mother. I have admired you at a distance; and if I have come to town sometimes, with long times between, to take a proud peep at you, I have done it unbeknown, my love, and gone away again.”