Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

The latent uneasiness in Darnay’s mind was roused to vigorous

life by this letter. The peril of an old servant and a good one,

whose only crime was fidelity to himself and his family, stared him

so reproachfully in the face, that, as he walked to and fro in the

Temple considering what to do, he almost hid his face from the

passers-by.

He knew very well, that in his horror of the deed which had

culminated the bad deeds and bad reputation of the old family

house, in his resentful suspicions of his uncle, and in the aversion

with which his conscience regarded the crumbling fabric that he

was supposed to uphold, he had acted imperfectly. He knew very

well, that in his love for Lucie, his renunciation of his social place,

though by no means new to his own mind, had been hurried and

incomplete. He knew that he ought to have systematically worked

it out and supervised it, and that he had meant to do it, and that it

had never been done.

The happiness of his own chosen English home, the necessity of

being always actively employed, the swift changes and troubles of

the time which had followed on one another so fast, that the events

of this week annihilated the immature plans of last week, and the

events of the week following made all new again; he knew very

well, that to the force of these circums