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.
    »Precisely. And it is satisfactory to me, as your father, my dear Louisa, to
know that you do not come to the consideration of that question with the
previous habits of mind, and habits of life, that belong to many young women.«
    »No, father,« she returned, »I do not.«
    »I now leave you to judge for yourself,« said Mr. Gradgrind. »I have stated
the case, as such cases are usually stated among practical minds; I have stated
it, as the case of your mother and myself was stated in its time. The rest, my
dear Louisa, is for you to decide.«
    From the beginning, she had sat looking at him fixedly. As he now leaned
back in his chair, and bent his deep-set eyes upon her in his turn, perhaps he
might have seen one wavering