‘Sissy Jupe.’
‘Pardon my curiosity at parting. Related to the family?’
‘I am only a poor girl,’ returned Sissy. ‘I was separated from my father—he was only a stroller—and taken pity on by Mr. Gradgrind. I have lived in the house ever since.’
She was gone.
‘It wanted this to complete the defeat,’ said Mr. James Harthouse, sinking, with a resigned air, on the sofa, after standing transfixed a little while. ‘The defeat may now be considered perfectly accomplished. Only a poor girl—only a stroller—only James Harthouse made nothing of—only James Harthouse a Great Pyramid of failure.’
The Great Pyramid put it into his head to go up the Nile. He took a pen upon the instant, and wrote the following note (in appropriate hieroglyphics) to his brother:
Dear Jack,—All up at Coketown. Bored out of the place, and going in for camels.
Affectionately,
Jem.
He rang the bell.
‘Send my fellow here.’
‘Gone to bed, sir.’