He was a rich man—­banker, merchant, manufacturer, and what not.  A big, loud man, with a stare and a metallic laugh.  A man who could never sufficiently vaunt himself—­a self-made man.  A man who was always proclaiming, through that brassy speaking-trumpet of a voice of his, his early ignorance and poverty.  A man who was the bully of humility.

He was fond of telling, was Mr. Bounderby, how he was born in a ditch, and, abandoned by his mother, how he ran away from his grandmother, who starved and ill-used him, and so became a vagabond.  “I pulled through it,” he would say, “though nobody threw me out a rope.  Vagabond, errand-boy, labourer, porter, clerk, chief manager, small partner—­Josiah Bounderby, of Coketown.”

This myth of his early life was dissipated later; and it turned out that his mother, a respectable old woman, whom Bounderby pensioned off with thirty pounds a year on condition she never came near him, had pinched herself to help him out in life, and put him as apprentice to a trade.  From this apprenticeship he had steadily risen to riches.

Mr. Bounderby held strong views about the people who worked for him, the “hands” he called them; and found, whenever they complained of anything, that they always expected to be set up in a coach and six, and to be fed on turtle soup and venison, with a gold spoon.

As time went on, and young Thomas Gradgrind became old enough to go into Bounderby’s Bank, Bounderby decided that Louisa was old enough to be married.

Mr. Gradgrind, now member of parliament for Coketown, mentioned the matter to his daughter.

“Louisa, my dear, you are the subject of a proposal of marriage that has been made to me.”

He waited, as if he would have been glad that she said something.  Strange to relate Mr. Gradgrind was not so collected at this moment as his daughter was.

“I have undertaken to let you know that—­in short, that Mr. Bounderby has long hoped that the time might arrive when he should offer you his hand in marriage.  That time has now come, and Mr. Bounderby has made his proposal to me, and has entreated me to make it known to you.”

“Father,” said Louisa, “do you think I love Mr. Bounderby?”

Mr. Gradgrind was extremely discomforted by this unexpected question.  “Well, my child,” he returned, “I—­really—­cannot take upon myself to say.”

“Father,” pursued Louisa, in exactly the same voice as before, “do you ask me to love Mr. Bounderby?”

“My dear Louisa, no.  No, I ask nothing.”

“Father, does Mr. Bounderby ask me to love him?”

“Really, my dear, it is difficult to answer your question.  Because the reply depends so materially, Louisa, on the sense in which we use the expression.  Mr. Bounderby does not pretend to anything sentimental.  Now, I should advise you to consider this question simply as one of fact.  Now, what are the facts of this case?  You are, we will say in round numbers, twenty years of age.  Mr. Bounderby is, we will say in round numbers, fifty.  There is some disparity in your respective years, but in your means and position there is none; on the contrary, there is a great suitability.  Confining yourself rigidly to fact, the questions of fact are:  ‘Does Mr. Bounderby ask me to marry him?’ ‘Yes, he does.’  And, ‘Shall I marry him?’”