suffer for me. A parting blessing for our child.”

“I send it to her by you. I kiss her by you. I say farewell to her

by you.”

“My husband. No! A moment!” He was tearing himself apart

from her. “We shall not be separated long. I feel that this will

break my heart by-and-by; but I will do my duty while I can, and

when I leave her, GoD will raise up friends for her, as He did for

me.”

Her father had followed her, and would have fallen on his knees

to both of them, but that Darnay put out a hand and seized him,

crying:

“No, no! What have you done, what have you done, that you

should kneel to us! We know now, what a struggle you made of

old. We know now, what you underwent when you suspected my

descent, and when you knew it. We know now, the natural

antipathy you strove against, and conquered, for her dear sake.

We thank you with all our hearts, and all our love and duty.

Heaven be with you!”

Her father’s only answer was to draw his hands through his

white hair, and wring them with a shriek of anguish.

“It could not be otherwise,” said the prisoner. “All things have

worked together as they have fallen out. It was the always-vain

endeavour to discharge my poor mother’s trust that first brought

my fatal presence near you. Good could never come of such evil, a

happier end was not in nature to so unhappy a beginning. Be

comforted, and forgive me. Heaven bless you!”

As he was drawn away, his wife released him, and stood looking

after him with her hands touching one another in the attitude of

prayer, and with a radiant look upon her face, in which there was

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

even a comforting smile. As he went out at the prisoners’ door, she

turned, laid her head lovingly on her father’s breast. tried to speak

to him, and fell at his feet.

Then, issuing from the obscure corner from which he had never

moved, Sydney Carton came and took her up. Only her father and

Mr. Lorry were with her. His arm trembled as it raised her, and

supported her head. Yet, there was an air about him that was not

all of pitythat had a flush of pride in it.

“Shall I take her to a coach? I shall never feel her weight.”

He carried her lightly to the door, and laid her tenderly down in

a coach. Her father and their old friend got into it, and he took his

seat beside the driver.

When they arrived at the gateway where he had paused in the

dark not many hours before, to picture to himself on which of the

rough stones of the street her feet had trodden, he lifted her again,

and carried her up the staircase to their rooms. There, he laid her

down on a couch, where her child and Miss Pross wept over her.

“Don’t recall her to herself,” he said, softly, to the latter, “she is

better so. Don’t revive her to consciousness, while she only faints.”

“Oh, Carton, Carton, dearCarton!” criedlittleLucie. springing