to me!’ Ask him, is that so.”

“It is so,” assented Defarge once more.

“Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop,” returned madame;

“but don’t tell me.”

Both her hearers derived a horrible enjoyment from the deadly

nature of her wraththe listener could feel how white she was,

without seeing herand both highly commended it. Defarge, a

weak minority, interposed a few words of the memory of the

compassionate wife of the Marquis; but only elicited from his own

wife a repetition of her last reply. “Tell the Wind and the Fire

where to stop; not me!”

Customers entered, and the group was broken up. The English

customer paid for what he had had, perplexedly counted his

change, and asked, as a stranger, to be directed towards the

National Palace. Madame Defarge took him to the door, and put

her arm on his, in pointing out the road. The English customer

was not without his reflections then, that it might be a good deed

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

to seize that arm, lift it, and strike under it sharp and deep.

But, he went his way, and was soon swallowed up in the

shadow of the prison wall. At the appointed hour, he emerged

from it to present himself in Mr. Lorry’s room again, where he

found the old gentleman walking to and fro in restless anxiety. He

said he had been with Lucie until just now, and had only left her