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


89

one day into our lives, if that be so,” Sydney Carton struck in, in
his moody way.

The footsteps were incessant, and the hurry of them became more
and more rapid. The corner echoed and re-echoed with the tread of
feet; some, as it seemed, under the windows; some, as it seemed, in
the room; some coming, some going, some breaking off, some
stopping altogether; all in the distant streets, and not one within
sight.

“Are all these footsteps destined to come to all of us, Miss Manette,
or are we to divide them among us?” “I don’t know, Mr. Darnay; I
told you it was a foolish fancy, but you asked for it. When I have
yielded myself to it, I have been alone, and then I have imag-ined
them the footsteps of the people who are to come into my life, and
my father’s.” “I take them into mine!” said Carton. “I ask no
questions and make no stipulations. There is a great crowd bearing
down upon us, Miss Manette, and I see them-- by the Lightning.”
He added the last words, after there had been a vivid flash which
had shown him lounging in the window.

“And I hear them!” he added again, after a peal of thunder. “Here
they come, fast, fierce, and furious!” It was the rush and roar of
rain that he typified, and it stopped him, for no voice could be
heard in it. A memorable storm of thunder and lightning broke
with that sweep of water, and there was not a moment’s interval in
crash, and fire, and rain, until after the moon rose at midnight.

The great bell of Saint Paul’s was striking One in the cleared air,
when Mr. Lorry, escorted by Jerry, high-booted and bearing a
lantern, set forth on his returnpassage to Clerkenwell. There were
solitary patches of road on the way between Soho and Clerkenwell,
and Mr. Lorry, mindful of foot-pads, always retained Jerry for this
service: though it was usually performed a good two hours earlier.
“What a night it has been! Almost a night, Jerry,” said Mr. Lorry,
“to bring the dead out of their graves.” “I never see the night
myself, master-nor yet I don’t expect to-what would do that,”
answered Jerry.

“Good night, Mr. Carton,” said the man of business. “Good night,
Mr. Darnay. Shall we ever see such a night again, together!”
Perhaps. Perhaps, see the great crowd of people with its rush and
roar, bearing down upon them, too.
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