an impression had actually happened?

It was but the inquiry of his first confusion and astonishment,

the answer being obvious. If the impression were not produced by

a real corresponding and sufficient cause, how came he, Jarvis

Lorry, there? How came he to have fallen asleep, in his clothes, on

the sofa in Dr. Manette’s consulting-room, and to be debating

these points outside the Doctor’s bedroom door in the early

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morning.

Within a few minutes, Miss Pross stood whispering at his side.

If he had had any particle of doubt left, her talk would of necessity

have resolved it; but he was by that time clear-headed, and had

none. He advised that they should let the time go by until regular

breakfast-hour, and should then meet the Doctor as if nothing

unusual had occurred. If he appeared to be in his customary state

of mind, Mr. Lorry would then cautiously proceed to seek

direction and guidance from the opinion he had been, in his

anxiety, so anxious to obtain.

Miss Pross, submitting herself to his judgment, the scheme was

worked out with care. Having abundance of time for his usual

methodical toilette, Mr. Lorry presented himself at the breakfasthour

in his usual white linen, and with his usual neat leg. The

Doctor was summoned in the usual way, and came to breakfast.

So far as it was possible to comprehend him without

overstepping those delicate and gradual approaches which Lorry

felt to be the only safe advance, he at first supposed that his

daughter’s marriage had taken place yesterday. An incidental

allusion, purposely thrown out, to the day of the week, and the day

of the month, set him thinking and counting, and evidently made

him uneasy. In all other respects, however, he was so composedly

himself, that Mr. Lorry determined to have the aid he sought. And

that aid was his own.

Therefore, when the breakfast was done and cleared away, and

he and the Doctor were left together, Mr. Lorry said, feelingly:

“My dear Manette, I am anxious to have your opinion, in

confidence, on a very curious case in which I am deeply

interested; that is to say, it is very curious to me; perhaps, to your

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better information it may be less so.”

Glancing at his hands, which were discoloured by his late work,

the Doctor looked troubled, and listened attentively. He had

already glanced at his hands more than once.

“Dr. Manette,” said Mr. Lorry, touching him affectionately on

the arm, “the case is the case of a particularly dear friend of mine.

Pray give your mind to it, and advise me well for his sakeand

above all, for his daughter’s, my dear Manette.”

“If I understand,” said the Doctor, in a subdued tone, “some

mental shock?”

“Yes!”

“Be explicit,” said the Doctor. “Spare no detail.”