“When you were talking to Lucie,” Mr. Lorry repeated. “Yes. I

wonder you are not ashamed to mention the name of Lucie!

Wishing you were going to France at this time of day!”

“However, I am not going,” said Charles Darnay, with a smile.

“It is more to the purpose that you say you are.”

“And I am in plain reality. The truth is, my dear Charles,” Mr.

Lorry glanced at the distant House, and lowered his voice, “you

can have no conception of the difficulty with which our business is

transacted, and of the peril in which our books and papers over

yonder are involved. The Lord above knows what the

compromising consequences would be to numbers of people, if

some of our documents were seized or destroyed; and they might

be, at any time, you know, for who can say that Paris is not set afire

today or sacked tomorrow! Now, a judicious selection from

these, with the least possible delay, and the burying of them, or

otherwise getting of them out of harm’s way is within the power

(without loss of precious time) of scarcely any one but myself, if

any one. And shall I hang back, when Tellson’s knows this and

says thisTellson’s, whose bread I have eaten these sixty years

because I am a little stiff about the joints? Why, I am a boy, sir, to

half a dozen old codgers here!”

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

“How I admire the gallantry of you