nuisance. On being shown her
chamber, she was so dreadfully sensible of its comforts as to suggest the
inference that she would have preferred to pass the night on the mangle in the
laundry. True, the Powlers and the Scadgerses were accustomed to splendour, »but
it is my duty to remember,« Mrs. Sparsit was fond of observing with a lofty
grace: particularly when any of the domestics were present, »that what I was, I
am no longer. Indeed,« said she, »if I could altogether cancel the remembrance
that Mr. Sparsit was a Powler, or that I myself am related to the Scadgers
family; or if I could even revoke the fact, and make myself a person of common
descent and ordinary connexions; I would gladly do so. I should think it, under
existing circumstances, right to do so.« The same Hermitical state of mind led
to her renunciation of made dishes and wines at dinner, until fairly commanded
by Mr. Bounderby to take them; when she said, »Indeed you are very good, sir;«
and departed from a resolution of which she had made rather formal and public
announcement, to »wait for the simple mutton.« She was likewise deeply
apologetic for wanting the salt; and, feeling amiably bound to bear out Mr.
Bounderby to the fullest extent in the testimony he had borne to her nerves,
occasionally sat back in her chair and silently wept; at which periods a tear of
large dimensions, like a crystal earring, might be observed (or rather, must be,
for it insisted on public notice) sliding down her Roman nose.
    But Mrs. Sparsit's greatest point, first and last, was her determination to
pity Mr. Bounderby. There were occasions when in looking at him she was
involuntarily moved to shake her head, as who would say, »Alas, poor Yorick!«
After allowing herself to be betrayed into these evidences of emotion, she would
force a lambent brightness, and would be fitfully cheerful, and would say, »You
have still good spirits, sir, I am thankful to find;« and would appear to hail
it as a blessed dispensation that Mr. Bounderby bore up as he did. One
idiosyncrasy for which she often apologized, she found it excessively difficult
to conquer. She had a curious propensity to call Mrs. Bounderby Miss Gradgrind,
and yielded to it some three or four score times in the course of the evening.
Her repetition of this mistake covered Mrs. Sparsit with modest confusion; but
indeed, she said, it seemed so