After grasping the Doctor’s hand, as he stood victorious and

proud before him; after grasping the hand of Mr. Lorry, who came

panting in breathless from his struggle against the waterspout of

the Carmagnole; after kissing little Lucie, who was lifted up to

clasp her hands round his neck; and after embracing the ever

zealous and faithful Pross who lifted her; he took his wife in his

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

arms, and carried her up to their rooms.

“Lucie! My own! I am safe.”

“O dearest Charles, let me thank God for this on my knees as I

have prayed to Him.”

They all reverently bowed their heads and hearts. When she

was again in his arms, he said to her “And now speak to your

father, dearest. No other man in all this France could have done

what he has done for me.”

She laid her head upon her father’s breast, as she had laid his

poor head on her own breast, long, long ago. He was happy in the

return he had made her, he was recompensed for his suffering, he

was proud of his strength. “You must not be weak, my darling,” he

remonstrated; “don’t tremble so. I have saved him.”

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

Chapter XXXVII

A KNOCK AT THE DOOR

have saved him.” It was not another of the dreams in which

he had often come back; he was really here. And yet his wife

trembled, and a vague but heavy fear