第25章(1 / 2)

When this interchange of christian name was effected, Madame

Defarge, picking her teeth with her toothpick, coughed another

grain of cough, and raised her eyebrows by the breadth of another

line.

“It is not often,” said the second of the three, addressing

Monsieur Defarge, “that many of these miserable beasts know the

taste of wine, or of anything but black bread and death. Is it not so,

Jacques?”

“It is so, Jacques,” Monsieur Defarge returned. At this second

interchange of the christian name, Madame Defarge, still using

her toothpick with profound composure, coughed another grain of

cough, and raised her eyebrows by the breadth of another line.

The last of the three now said his say, as he put down his empty

drinking vessel and smacked his lips.

“Ah! So much the worse! A bitter taste it is that such poor cattle

always have in their mouths, and hard lives they live, Jacques. Am

I right, Jacques?”

“You are right, Jacques,” was the response of Monsieur

Defarge.

This third interchange of the christian name was completed at

the moment when Madame Defarge put her toothpick by, kept her

eyebrows up, and slightly rustled in her seat.

“Hold then! True!” muttered her husband. “Gentlemenmy

wife!”

The three customers pulled off their hats to Madame Defarge,

with three flourishes. She acknowledged their homage b