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1. THE STAIRCASE Mrs. Sparsit, who has not quite gotten over having to leave Mr. Bounderby's house to make way for Louisa, maliciously watches the affair between Louisa and Mr. Harthouse progress with glee. As the two slowly draw closer together, she imagines that Louisa is slowly descending a great winding staircase. Down, down, down she goes…and when Louisa finally elopes or disgraces herself publicly in some other way with Mr. Harthouse, Mrs. Sparsit imagines her stepping off the bottom of the staircase and falling into a dark abyss. Louisa, of course, never quite falls off this staircase as she refuses to elope with Mr. Harthouse. 2. PEGASUS The Pegasus's Arms is the name of the tavern at which the circus company is staying when Sissy returns with Mr. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby to find her father gone at the very beginning of the novel. Pegasus, a mythical winged horse, represents the imaginary and fantastical world in which imagination is allowed to soar: a world the Gradgrinds are forbidden to experience. It is the perfect residence, on the other hand, for Sissy's father's circus company, who make the world of magic and fairy stories come to life. This is what gives Sissy such a good heart: free exercise of her imagination and her heart.