could have been holden.

“If it had been possible, Miss Manette, that you could have

returned the love of the man you see before youself-flung away,

wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse as you know him to be

he would have been conscious this day and hour, in spite of his

happiness, that he would bring you to misery, bring you to sorrow

and repentance, blight you, disgrace you, pull you down with him.

I know very well that you can have no tenderness for me; I ask for

none; I am even thankful that it cannot be.”

“Without it, can I not save you, Mr. Carton? Can I not recall

youforgive me again!to a better course? Can I in no way repay

your confidence? I know this is a confidence,” she modestly said,

after a little hesitation, and in earnest tears, “I know you would

say this to no one else. Can I turn it to no good account for

yourself, Mr. Carton?”

He shook his head.

“To none. No, Miss Manette, to none. If you will hear me

through a very little more, all you can ever do for me is done. I

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. In

my degradation I have not been so degraded but that the sight of

you with your father, and of this home made such a home by you,

has stirred old shadows that I thought had died out of me. Since I

knew you, I have been troubled by a