Philosophical — Hard Times

In Sleary's booth Bitzer still holds Tom by the collar and will deliver him to Bounderby for the bank clerk's place. Gradgrind, broken, asks if Bitzer has a heart. Bitzer cites Harvey on circulation, then says his heart is accessible to Reason alone. He wants Tom's situation as a rise; self-interest, he says, is the only hold on any person, as Gradgrind taught him.

Gradgrind offers money; Bitzer refuses to compound a felony when promotion is safer. An appeal to old schooling fails: the schooling was paid for, and when Bitzer left, the bargain ended. Dickens's narrator states the Gradgrind philosophy plain: nothing without purchase, gratitude abolished, life a bargain across a counter. Sleary publicly sides with Bitzer on the robbery but winks a secret plan to Sissy.

His horse, dog, and pony-gig distract Bitzer on the road. Gradgrind, Louisa, and Sissy wait at the inn all night. In the morning Sleary reports Tom may be aboard ship; Childers took him after the horse danced the polka and the dog pulled Bitzer down.

Sleary tells Gradgrind of Merrylegs, Sissy's father's dog, who found him dying after Jupe was dead and buried. Love is not all self-interest, Sleary says; people must be amused, they cannot always be learning or working. Make the best of us, not the worst, he tells the Squar, and slips out calling himself a Cackler.