akorn - Mighty Old Tales Retold

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XXVII

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XXVII
Echoing Footsteps
A WONDERFUL corner for echoes, it has been remarked, that corner where the Doctor lived. Ever busily winding the golden thread which bound her husband, and her father, and herself, and her old directress and companion, in a life of quiet bliss, Lucie sat in the still house in the tranquilly resounding corner, listening to the echoing footsteps of years.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XXVI

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XXVI
A Plea
WHEN the newly-married pair came home, the first person who appeared, to offer his congratulations, was Sydney Carton. They had not been at home many hours, when he presented himself. He was not improved in habits, or in looks, or in manner; but there was a certain rugged air of fidelity about him, which was new to the observation of Charles Darnay.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XXV

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XXV
An Opinion
WORN out by anxious watching, Mr. Lorry fell asleep at his post. On the tenth morning of his suspense, he was startled by the shining of the sun into the room where a heavy slumber had overtaken him when it was dark night.He rubbed his eyes and roused himself; but he doubted, when he had done so, whether he was not still asleep.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XXIV

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XXIV
Nine Days
THE marriage-day was shining brightly, and they were ready outside the closed door of the Doctor’s room, where he was speaking with Charles Darnay. They were ready to go to church; the beautiful bride, Mr. Lorry, and Miss Pross—to whom the event, through a gradual process of reconcilement to the inevitable, would have been one of absolute bliss, but for the yet lingering consideration that her brother Solomon should have been the bridegroom.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XXIII

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XXIII
One Night
NEVER did the sun go down with a brighter glory on the quiet corner in Soho, than one memorable evening when the Doctor and his daughter sat under the plane-tree together. Never did the moon rise with a milder radiance over great London, than on that night when it found them still seated under the tree, and shone upon their faces through its leaves.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XXII

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XXII
Still Knitting
MADAME Defarge and monsieur her husband returned amicably to the bosom of Saint Antoine, while a speck in a blue cap toiled through the darkness, and through the dust, and down the weary miles of avenue by the wayside, slowly tending towards that point of the compass where the chateau of Monsieur the Marquis, now in his grave, listened to the whispering trees.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XXI

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XXI
Knitting
THERE had been earlier drinking than usual in the wine-shop of Monsieur Defarge. As early as six o’clock in the morning, sallow faces peeping through its barred windows had descried other faces within, bending over measures of wine. Monsieur Defarge sold a very thin wine at the best of times, but it would seem to have been an unusually thin wine that he sold at this time. A sour wine, moreover, or a souring, for its influence on the mood of those who drank it was to make them gloomy.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XX

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XX
The Honest Trademan
TO the eyes of Mr. Jeremiah Cruncher, sitting on his stool in Fleet-street with his grisly urchin beside him, a vast number and variety of objects in movement were every day presented. Who could sit upon anything in Fleet-street during the busy hours of the day, and not be dazed and deafened by two immense processions, one ever tending westward with the sun, the other ever tending eastward from the sun, both ever tending to the plains beyond the range of red and purple where the sun goes down!

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XIX

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XIX
The Fellow of No Delicacy
IF Sydney Carton ever shone anywhere, he certainly never shone in the house of Doctor Manette. He had been there often, during a whole year, and had always been the same moody and morose lounger there. When he cared to talk, he talked well; but, the cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him.

A Tale of Two Cities - Chapter XVIII

A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter XVIII
The Fellow of Delicacy
MR. STRYVER, having made up his mind to that magnanimous bestowal of good fortune on the Doctor’s daughter, resolved to make her happiness known to her before he left town for the Long Vacation.
Excerpt From: Charles Dickens. “A Tale of Two Cities.