A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations (Oprah's Book Club) by Charles Dickens Read Free Book Online Page B

tile-paved entry to the gloomy tile-paved staircase, Monsieur Defarge bent down on one knee to the child of his old master, and put her hand to his lips. It was a gentle action, but not at all gently done; a very remarkable transformation had come over him in a few seconds. He had no good-humour in his face, nor any openness of aspect left, but had become a secret, angry, dangerous man.
    ‘It is very high; it is a little difficult. Better to begin slowly.’ Thus, Monsieur Defarge, in a stern voice, to Mr Lorry, as they began ascending the stairs.
    ‘Is he alone?’ the latter whispered.
    ‘Alone! God help him who should be with him!’ said the other, in the same low voice.
    ‘Is he always alone, then?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Of his own desire?’
    ‘Of his own necessity. As he was, when I first saw him after they found me and demanded to know if I would take him, and, at my peril, be discreet – as he was then, so he is now.’
    ‘He is greatly changed?’
    ‘Changed!’
    The keeper of the wine-shop stopped to strike the wall with his hand, and mutter a tremendous curse. No direct answer could have been half so forcible. Mr Lorry’s spirits grew heavier and heavier, as he and his two companions ascended higher and higher.
    Such a staircase, with its accessories, in the older and more crowded part of Paris, would be bad enough now; but, at that time, it was vile indeed to unaccustomed and unhardened senses. Every little habitation within the great foul nest of one high building – that is to say, the room or rooms within every door that opened on the general staircase – left its own heap of refuse on its own landing, besides flinging other refuse from its own windows. The uncontrollable and hopeless mass of decomposition so engendered, would have polluted the air, even if poverty and deprivation had not loaded it with their intangible impurities; the two bad sources combined made it almost insupportable. Through such an atmosphere, by a steep dark shaft of dirt and poison, the way lay. Yielding to his own disturbance of mind, and to his young companion’s agitation, which became greater every instant, Mr Jarvis Lorry twice stopped to rest. Each of these stoppages was made at a doleful grating, by which any languishing good airs that were left uncorrupted, seemed to escape, and all spoilt and sickly vapours seemed to crawl in. Through the rusted bars, tastes, rather than glimpses, were caught of the jumbled neighbourhood; and nothing within range, nearer or lower than the summits of the two great towers of Notre-Dame had any promise on it of healthy life or wholesome aspirations.
    At last, the top of the staircase was gained, and they stopped for the third time. There was yet an upper staircase, of a steeper inclination and of contracted dimensions, to be ascended, before the garret story was reached. The keeper of the wine-shop, always going a little in advance, and always going on the side which Mr Lorry took, as though he dreaded to be asked any question by the young lady, turned himself about here, and, carefully feeling in the pockets of the coat he carried over his shoulder, took out a key.
    ‘The door is locked then, my friend?’ said Mr Lorry, surprised.
    ‘Ay. Yes,’ was the grim reply of Monsieur Defarge.
    ‘You think it necessary to keep the unfortunate gentleman so retired?’
    ‘I think it necessary to turn the key.’ Monsieur Defarge whispered it closer in his ear, and frowned heavily.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Why! Because he has lived so long, locked up, that he would be frightened – rave – tear himself to pieces – die – come to I know not what harm – if his door was left open.’
    ‘Is it possible!’ exclaimed Mr Lorry.
    ‘Is it possible?’ repeated Defarge, bitterly. ‘Yes. And a beautiful world we live in, when it is possible, and when many other such things are possible, and not only possible, but done – done, see you! – under that sky there, every day. Long live the Devil. Let us go