the light.

“If, without disturbing him,” she said, raising her hand to Mr.

Lorry as he stooped over them, after repeated blowings of his

nose, “all could be arranged for our leaving Paris at once, so that,

from the very door, he could be taken away”

“But, consider. Is he fit for the journey?” asked Mr. Lorry.

“More fit for that, I think, than to remain in this city, so

dreadful to him.”

“It is true,” said Defarge, who was kneeling to look on and hear.

“More than that; Monsieur Manette is, for all reasons, best out of

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

France. Say, shall I hire a carriage and post-horses?”

“That’s business,” said Mr. Lorry, resuming on the shortest

notice his methodical manners; “and if business is to be done, I

had better do it.”

“Then be so kind,” urged Miss Manette, “as to leave us here.

You see how composed he has become, and you cannot be afraid

to leave him with me now. Why should you be? If you will lock the

door to secure us from interruption, I do not doubt that you will

find him, when you come back, as quiet as you leave him. In any

case, I will take care of him until you return, and then we will

remove him straight.”

Both Mr. Lorry and Defarge were rather disinclined to this

course, and in favour of one of them remaining. But, as there were

not only carriages and horses to be seen to, but travelling papers;

and as time pressed, for the day was drawing to an end, it came at

last to their hastily dividing the business that was necessary to be

done, and hurrying away to do it.

Then, as the darkness closed in, the daughter laid her head

down on the hard ground close at her father’s side, and watched

him. The darkness deepened and deepened, and they both lay

quiet, until a light gleamed through the chinks in the wall.

Mr. Lorry and Monsieur Defarge had made all ready for the

journey, and had brought with them, besides travelling cloaks and

wrappers, bread and meat, wine, and hot coffee. Monsieur Defarge

put his provender, and the lamp he carried, on the shoemaker’s

bench (there was nothing else in the garret but a pallet-bed), and

he and Mr. Lorry roused the captive, and assisted him to his feet.

No human intelligence could have read the mysteries of his

mind, in the scared blank wonder of his face. Whether he knew

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what had happened, whether he recollected what they had said to

him, whether he knew that he was free, were questions which no

sagacity could have solved. They tried speaking to him; but, he

was so confused, and so very slow to answer, that they took fright

at his bewilderment, and agreed for the time to tamper with him

no more. He had a wild, lost manner of occasionally clasping his

head in his hands, that had not been seen in him before; yet, he

had some pleasure in the mere sound of his daughter’s voice, and

invariably turned to it when she spoke.