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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


20

waistcoat, as though it pitted its gravity and longevity against the
levity and evanescence of the brisk fire. He had a good leg, and
was a little vain of it, for his brown stockings fitted sleek and close,
and were of a fine texture; his shoes and buckles, too, though plain,
were trim. He wore an odd little sleek crisp flaxen wig, setting very
close to his head: which wig, it is to be presumed, was made of
hair, but which looked far more as though it were spun from
filaments of silk or glass. His linen, though not of a fineness in
accordance with his stockings, was as white as the tops of the
waves that broke upon the neighbouring beach, or the specks of
sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea. A face habitually
suppressed and quieted, was still lighted up under the quaint wig
by a pair of moist bright eyes that it must have cost their owner, in
years gone by, some pains to drill to the composed and reserved
expression of Tellson’s Bank. He had a healthy colour in his cheeks,
and his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety. But, perhaps
the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson’s Bank were principally
occupied with the cares of other people; and perhaps second-hand
cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.
Completing his resemblance to a man who was sitting for his
portrait, Mr. Lorry dropped off to sleep. The arrival of his
breakfast roused him, and he said to the drawer, as he moved his
chair to it: “I wish accommodation prepared for a young lady
who may come here at any time to-day. She may ask for Mr. Jarvis
Lorry, or she may only ask for a gentleman from Tellson’s Bank.
Please to let me know.” “Yes, sir. Tellson’s Bank in London, sir?”
“Yes.” “Yes, sir. We have oftentimes the honour to entertain your
gentlemen in their travelling backwards and forwards betwixt
London and Paris, sir. A vast deal of travelling, sir, in Tellson and
Company’s House.” “Yes. We are quite a French House, as well as
an English one.”

“Yes, sir. Not much in the habit of such travelling yourself, I think,
sir?” “Not of late years. It is fifteen years since we-since I-came last
from France.” “Indeed, sir? That was before my time here, sir.
Before our people’s time here, sir. The George was in other hands
at that time, sir.” “I believe so.” “But I would hold a pretty wager,
sir, that a House like Tellson and Company was flourishing, a
matter of fifty, not to speak of fifteen years ago?” “You might treble
that, and say a hundred and fifty, yet not be far from the truth.”
“Indeed, sir!” Rounding his mouth and both his eyes, as he stepped
backward from the table, the waiter shifted his napkin from his
right arm to his left, dropped into a comfortable attitude, and stood
surveying the guest while he ate and drank, as from an observatory
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