picking his way over the well-worn Turkey carpet, supposed Miss

Manette to be, for the moment, in some adjacent room, until,

having got past the two tall candles, he saw standing to receive

him by the table between them and the fire, a young lady of not

more than seventeen, in a riding-cloak, and still holding her straw

travelling-hat by its ribbon in her hand. As his eyes rested on a

short, slight, pretty figure, a quantity of golden hair, a pair of blue

eyes that met his own with an inquiring look, and a forehead with

a singular capacity (remembering how young and smooth it was),

of lifting and knitting itself into an expression that was not quite

one of perplexity, or wonder, or alarm, or merely of a bright fixed

attention, though it included all the four expressionsas his eyes

rested on these things, a sudden vivid likeness passed before him,

of a child whom he had held in his arms on the passage across that

very Channel, one cold time, when the hail drifted heavily and the

sea ran high. The likeness passed away, like a breath along the

surface of the gaunt pier-glass behind her, on the frame of which,

a hospital procession of Negro cupids, several headless and all

cripples, were offering black baskets of Dead Sea fruit to black

divinities of the feminine genderand he made his formal bow to

Miss Manette.

“Pray take a seat, sir.” In a very clear and pleasant young voice;

a little foreign in its accent, but a very little indeed.

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

“I kiss your hand, miss,” said Mr. Lorry, with the manners of an

earlier date, as he made his formal bow again, and took his seat.

“I received a letter from the Bank, sir, yesterday, informing me

that some intelligenceor discovery”

“The word is not material, miss; either word will do.”

“respecting the small property of my poor father, whom I

never sawso long dead” Mr. Lorry moved in his chair, and

cast a troubled look towards the hospital procession of Negro

cupids. As if they had any help for anybody in their absurd

baskets!

“rendered it necessary that I should go to Paris, there to

communicate with a gentleman of the Bank, so good as to be

despatched to Paris for the purpose.”

“Myself.”

“As I was prepared to hear, sir.”

She curtseyed to him (young ladies made curtseys in those

days), with a pretty desire to convey to him that she felt how much

older and wiser he was than she. He made her another bow.

“I replied to the Bank, sir, that as it was considered necessary,

by those who knew, and who are so kind as to advise me, that I

should go to France, and that as I am an orphan and have no

friend who could go with me, I should esteem it highly if I might

be permitted to place myself, during the journey, under that

worthy gentleman’s protection. The gentleman had left London,

but I think a messenger was sent after him to beg the favour of his

waiting for me here.”