you to have pity on me and not exercise any power that you

possess, against my innocent husband, but to use it in his behalf. O

sister-woman, think of me. As a wife and mother!”

Madame Defarge looked, coldly as ever, at the suppliant, and

said, turning to her friend The Vengeance:

“The wives and mothers we have been used to see, since we

were as little as this child, and much less, have not been greatly

considered? We have known their husbands and fathers laid in

prison and kept from them, often enough? All our lives, we have

seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children,

poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression,

and neglect of all kinds?”

“We have seen nothing else,” returned The Vengeance.

“We have borne this a long time,” said Madame Defarge,

turning her eyes again upon Lucie. “Judge you! Is it likely that the

trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now?”

She resumed her knitting and went out. The Vengeance

followed. Defarge went last, and closed the door.

“Courage, my dear Lucie,” said Mr. Lorry, as he raised her.

“Courage, courage! So far all goes well with usmuch, much

better than it has of late gone with many poor souls. Cheer up, and

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

have a thankful heart.”

“I am not thankless, I hope, but that dreadful woman seems to