A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

Monsieur the Marquis

his carriage stopped, and the great door of his chateau was opened to him.

was one of those dark nights that hold their breath by the hour together, and then heave a long low sigh, and hold their breath again.

all luxuries befitting the state of a marquis in a luxurious age and country.

the nephew of Monseigneur. He

known in England as Charles Darnay.

cruel face,

resumed the nephew, glancing at him with deep distrust,

We have lost many privileges;

new philosophy has become the mode;

regeneration.

believe our name to be more detested than any name in France."

"Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend," observed the Marquis, "will keep the dogs obedient

said the nephew,

"we have done wrong,

I will die, perpetuating the system under which I have lived."

"This property and France are lost to me," said the nephew, sadly; "I renounce them."

the property?

is it but a wilderness of misery and ruin!"

"To the eye it is fair enough, here; but seen in its integrity, under the sky, and by the daylight, it is a crumbling tower of waste, mismanagement, extortion, debt, mortgage, oppression, hunger, nakedness, and suffering."

"If it ever becomes mine, it shall be put into some hands better qualified to free it slowly (if such a thing is possible) from the weight that drags it down,

"I must do, to live, what others of my countrymen, even with nobility at their backs, may have to do some day-work."

months, to the number of twelve,

Mr. Charles Darnay was established in England as a higher teacher of the French language who was conversant with French literature.

was a ...

he prospered.

He had expected labour, and he found it, and

Cambridge, where he read with undergraduates as a sort of tolerated smuggler who drove a contraband trade

The rest of his time he passed in London.

He had loved Lucie Manette from the hour of his danger.

But, he had not yet spoken to her on the subject;

he knew Lucie to be out with Miss Pross.

Mr. Stryver and Sydney Carton were both here yesterday,

Dear Doctor Manette, I love your daughter

look only to sharing your fortunes, sharing your life and home, and being faithful to you to the death.

Not to divide with Lucie her privilege as your child,

Sydney

was in a very damaged condition,

Stryver the portly,

it is a piece of good fortune for her,

magnanimous bestowal of good fortune on the Doctor's daughter,

As to the strength of his case, he had not a doubt about it,

clearly saw his way to the verdict.

there really is so much too much of you!"

as if it would have been infinitely less remarkable if he had said it with his head off.

All my life might have been."

my last avowal of myself was made to you,

my name, and faults, and miseries were gently carried in your

h...

shall always be, towards you, what I am now, though outwardly I shall be what you have heretofore seen me.