other side of the little street in a purposeless way, that was highly

fraught with nothing. Already, the mender of roads had

penetrated into the midst of a group of fifty particular friends, and

was smiting himself in the breast with his blue cap. What did all

this portend, and what portended the swift hoisting-up of

Monsieur Gabelle behind a servant on horseback, and the

conveying away of the said Gabelle (double-laden though the

horse was), at a gallop, like a new version of the German ballad of

Leonora?

It portended that there was one stone face too many, up at the

chateau.

The Gorgon had surveyed the building again in the night, and

had added the one stone face wanting; the stone face for which it

had waited through about two hundred years.

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It lay back on the pillow of Monsieur the Marquis. It was like a

fine mask, suddenly startled, made angry, and petrified. Driven

home into the heart of the stone figure attached to it, was a knife.

Round its hilt was a frill of paper, on which was scrawled:

“Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.”

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Chapter XVI

TWO PROMISES

M

ore months, to the number of twelve, had come and

gone, and Mr. Charles Darnay was established in

England as a higher teacher of the French language

who was conversant with French literature. In this age, he would

have been a Professor; in that age he was a Tutor. He read with

young men who could find any leisure and interest for the study of

a living tongue spoken all over the world, and he cultivated a taste

for its stores of knowledge and fancy. He could write of them,

besides, in sound English, and render them into sound English.

Such masters were not at that time easily found; Princes that had

been, and Kings that were to be, were not yet of the Teacher class,

and no ruined nobility had dropped out of Tellson’s ledgers, to

turn cooks and carpenters. As a tutor, whose attainments made

the student’s way unusually pleasant and profitable, and as an

elegant translator who brought something to his work besides

mere dictionary knowledge, young Mr. Darnay soon became

known and encouraged. He was well acquainted, moreover, with

the circumstances of his country, and those were of ever-growing

interest. So, with great perseverance and untiring industry, he

prospered.

In London, he had expected neither to walk on pavements of

gold, nor to lie on beds of roses; if he had had any such exalted

expectation, he would not have prospered. He had expected

labour, and he found it, and did it, and made the best of it. In this,

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his prosperity consisted.