and referring to an imaginary letter of two or three hurried lines in

his own hand, represented to have been addressed to her by the

same post.

These measures, advisable to be taken in any case, Mr. Lorry

took in the hope of his coming to himself. If that should happen

soon, he kept another course in reserve; which was, to have a

certain opinion that he thought the best, on the Doctor’s case.

In the hope of his recovery, and of resort to this third course

being thereby rendered practicable, Mr. Lorry resolved to watch

him attentively, with as little appearance as possible of doing so.

He therefore made arrangements to absent himself from Tellson’s

for the first time in his life, and took his post by the window in the

same room.

He was not long in discovering that it was worse than useless to

speak to him, since, on being pressed, he became worried. He

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abandoned that attempt on the first day, and resolved merely to

keep himself always before him, as a silent protest against the

delusion into which he had fallen, or was falling. He remained,

therefore, in his seat near the window, reading and writing, and

expressing in as many pleasant and natural ways as he could think

of, that it was a free place.

Doctor Manette took what was given him to eat and drink, and

worked on, that first day, until it was too dark to seeworked on,

half an hour after Mr. Lorry could not have seen, for his life, to

read or write. When he put his tools aside as useless, until

morning, Mr. Lorry rose and said to him:

“Will you go out?”

He looked down at the floor on either side of him in the old

manner, looked up in the old manner, and repeated in the old low

voice:

“Out?”

“Yes; for a walk with me. Why not?”

He made no effort to say why not, and said not a word more.

But, Mr. Lorry thought he saw, as he leaned forward on his bench

in the dusk, with his elbows on his knees and his head in his

hands, that he was in some misty way asking himself, “Why not?”

The sagacity of the man of business perceived an advantage here,

and determined to hold it.

Miss Pross and he divided the night into two watches, and

observed him at intervals from the adjoining room. He paced up

and down for a long time before he lay down; but, when he did

finally lay himself down, he fell asleep. In the morning, he was up

betimes, and went straight to his bench and to work.

On this second day, Mr. Lorry saluted him cheerfully by his

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

name, and spoke to him on topics that had been of late familiar to

them. He returned no reply, but it was evident that he heard what

was said, and that he thought about it, however confusedly. This

encouraged Mr. Lorry to have Miss Pross in with her work, several