Hard Times by Book 1 Chapter 14 Page 3

‘that your continuance at the school any longer would be useless.’

‘I am afraid it would, sir,’ Sissy answered with a curtsey.

‘I cannot disguise from you, Jupe,’ said Mr. Gradgrind, knitting his brow, ‘that the result of your probation there has disappointed me; has greatly disappointed me. You have not acquired, under Mr. and Mrs. M’Choakumchild, anything like that amount of exact knowledge which I looked for. You are extremely deficient in your facts. Your acquaintance with figures is very limited. You are altogether backward, and below the mark.’

‘I am sorry, sir,’ she returned; ‘but I know it is quite true. Yet I have tried hard, sir.’

‘Yes,’