Explosion — Hard Times

Harthouse rises early, smokes in his bay window, and reckons up his gains like an idle card player. He has established a confidence with Louisa that excludes Bounderby, turned on her indifference to her husband, and entered through her love for Tom until the barrier behind which she lived has melted. Dickens warns that indifference, not energetic vice, is the trimmed devil that wrecks ships.

Riding back at six, Harthouse meets Bounderby bursting from the shrubbery: the Bank has been robbed of about a hundred and fifty pounds from Tom's safe with a false key. Louisa turns faint when she hears it. Tom stays at the Bank helping police. Bounderby builds suspicion against Stephen Blackpool, the Hand who quarrelled with him, bolted three days later, was seen watching the Bank at night, and kept company with a strange old woman. Mrs Sparsit confirms every old warning. Louisa thinks of Mrs Pegler shrinking from observation in Stephen's room.

Mrs Sparsit stays on as nurse to Bounderby's nerves, performing excessive humility at dinner, weeping crystal tears, pitying her employer, and calling Louisa Miss Gradgrind scores of times. After Bounderby plays judge and condemns the suspects, Bitzer is sent to fetch Tom by mail. In the garden twilight Louisa walks with Harthouse while Mrs Sparsit watches from the backgammon table, pretending to worry about dew.

Long after midnight Louisa kneels at Tom's bed and begs him to whisper yes if he has anything concealed. He feigns sleep, denies everything, and says Stephen may as well be guilty. When she asks whether to reveal their visit to Stephen's lodging, he tells her to say what she likes. After she leaves, the wretched boy locks his door and tears his hair, grudgingly loving her while hatefully spurning himself and all the good in the world.

Harthouse holds Louisa's parasol after Bounderby names Stephen, though the sun does not shine there. Bitzer reports the exact sum lost while Bounderby silences him. The chapter ends with two explosions still contained: public blame heading toward an absent worker, private guilt locked behind Tom's door, and Louisa caught between a brother who lies and a lover who hunts.