a tale of two cities(双城记)-19

A Tale of Two Citiesostentatious friendliness for the disclosure he was about to make,“because I know you don’t mean half you say; and if you meant itall, it would be of no importance. I make this little preface, becauseyou once mentioned the young lady to me in slighting terms.”“I did?”“Certainly; and in these chambers.”Sydney Carton looked at his punch and looked at hiscomplacent friend; drank his punch and looked at his complacentfriend.“You made mention of the young lady as a golden haired doll.The young lady is Miss Manette. If you had been a fellow of anysensitiveness or delicacy of feeling that kind of way, Sydney, Imight have been a little resentful of your employing such adesignation; but you are not. You want that sense altogether;therefore I am no more annoyed when I think of the expression,than I should be annoyed by a man’s opinion of a picture of mine,who had no eye for pictures: or of a piece of music of mine, whohad no ear for music.”Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it bybumpers, looking at his friend.“Now you know all about it, Syd,” said Mr. Stryver. “I don’tcare about fortune: she is a charming creature, and I have madeup my mind to please myself: on the whole, I think I can afford toplease myself. She will have in me a man already pretty well off,and a rapidly rising man, and a man of some distinction: it is apiece of good fortune for her, but she is worthy of good fortune.Are you astonished?”Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, “Why should I beastonished?”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two Cities“You approve?”Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, “Why should I notapprove?”“Well!” said his friend Stryver, “you take it more easily than Ifancied you would, and are less mercenary on my behalf than Ithought you would be; though, to be sure, you know well enoughby this time that your ancient chum is a man of a pretty strongwill. Yes, Sydney, I have had enough of this style of life, with noother as a change from it; I feel that it is a pleasant thing for a manto have a home when he feels inclined to go to it (when he doesn’t,he can stay away), and I feel that Miss Manette will tell well in anystation, and will always do me credit. So I have made up my mind.And now, Sydney, old boy, I want to say a word to you about yourprospects. You are in a bad way, you know; you really are in a badway. You don’t know the value of money, you live hard, you’llknock up one of these days, and be ill and poor; you really ought tothink about a nurse.”The prosperous patronage with which he said it, made him looktwice as big as he was, and four times as offensive.“Now let me recommend you,” pursued Stryver, “to look it inthe face. I have looked it in the face, in my different way; look it inthe face, you, in your different way. Marry. Provide somebody totake care of you. Never mind your having no enjoyment ofwoman’s society, nor understanding of it, nor tact for it. Find outsomebody. Find out some respectable woman with a littleproperty—somebody in the landlady way, or lodging-letting way—and marry her, against a rainy day. That’s the kind of thing foryou. Now think of it, Sydney.”“I’ll think of it,” said Sydney.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two CitiesChapter XVIIITHE FELLOW OF DELICACYMr. Stryver having made up his mind to thatmagnanimous bestowal of good fortune on the Doctor’sdaughter, resolved to make her happiness known to herbefore he left town for the Long Vacation. After some mentaldebating of the point, he came to the conclusion that it would be aswell to get all the preliminaries done with, and they could thenarrange at their leisure whether he should give her his hand aweek or two before Michaelmas Term, or in the little Christmasvacation between it and Hilary.As to the strength of his case, he had not a doubt about it, butclearly saw his way to the verdict. Argued with the jury onsubstantial worldly grounds—the only grounds ever worth takinginto account—it was a plain case, and had not a weak spot in it. Hecalled himself for the plaintiff, there was no getting over hisevidence, the counsel for the defendant threw up his brief, and thejury did not even turn to consider. After trying it, Stryver, C.J.,was satisfied that no plainer case could be.Accordingly, Mr. Stryver inaugurated the Long Vacation with aformal proposal to take Miss Manette to Vauxhall Gardens; thatfailing, to Ranelagh; that unaccountably failing too, it behoved himto present himself in Soho, and there declare his noble mind.Towards Soho, therefore, Mr. Stryver shouldered his way fromthe Temple, while the bloom of the Long Vacation’s infancy wasstill upon it. Anybody who had seen him projecting himself intoCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two CitiesSoho while he was yet on St. Dunstan’s side of Temple Bar,bursting in his full-blown way along the pavement, to thejostlement of all weaker people, might have seen how safe andstrong he was.His way taking him past Tellson’s, and he both banking atTellson’s and knowing Mr. Lorry as the intimate friend of theManettes, it entered Mr. Stryver’s mind to enter the bank, andreveal to Mr. Lorry the brightness of the Soho horizon. So, hepushed open the door with the weak rattle in its throat, stumbleddown the two steps, got past the two ancient cashiers, andshouldered himself into the musty back closet where Mr. Lorry satat great books ruled for figures, with perpendicular iron bars tohis window as if that was ruled for figures too, and everythingunder the clouds were a sum.“Halloa!” said Mr. Stryver, “How do you do? I hope you arewell!”It was Stryver’s grand peculiarity that he always seemed too bigfor any place, or space. He was so much too big for Tellson’s, thatold clerks in distant corners looked up with looks of remonstrance,as though he squeezed them against the wall. The House itself,magnificently reading the paper quite in the far-off perspective,lowered displeased, as if the Stryver head had been butted into itsresponsible waistcoat.The discreet Mr. Lorry said, in a sample tone of the voice hewould recommend under the circumstances, “How do you do, Mr.Stryver? How do you do, sir?” and shook hands. There was apeculiarity in his manner of shaking hands, always to be seen inany clerk at Tellson’s who shook hands with a customer when theHouse pervaded the air. He shook in a self-abnegating way, as oneCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two Citieswho shook for Tellson & Co.“Can I do anything for you, Mr. Stryver?” asked Mr. Lorry, inhis business character.“Why, no, thank you; this is a private visit to yourself, Mr.Lorry; I have come for a private word.”“Oh indeed!” said Mr. Lorry, bending down his ear, while hiseye strayed to the House afar off.“I am going,” said Mr. Stryver, leaning his arms confidently onthe desk: whereupon, although it was a large double one, thereappeared to be not half desk enough for him: “I am going to makean offer of myself in marriage to your agreeable little friend, MissManette, Mr. Lorry.”“Oh dear me!” cried Mr. Lorry, rubbing his chin, and looking athis visitor dubiously.“Oh dear me, sir?” repeated Stryver, drawing back. “Oh dearyou, sir? What may your meaning be, Mr. Lorry?”“My meaning,” answered the man of business, “is, of course,friendly and appreciative, and that it does you the greatest credit,and—in short, my meaning is everything you could desire. But—really you know, Mr. Stryver—” Mr. Lorry paused, and shook hishead at him in the oddest manner, as if he were compelled againsthis will to add, internally, “You know there really is so much toomuch of you!”“Well!” said Stryver, slapping the desk with his contentioushand, opening his eyes wider, and taking a long breath, “if Iunderstand you, Mr. Lorry, I’ll be hanged!”Mr. Lorry adjusted his little wig at both ears as a meanstowards that end, and bit the feather of a pen.“D—n it all, sir!” said Stryver, staring at him, “am I notCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two Citieseligible?”“Oh dear yes! Yes. Oh yes, you’re eligible!” said Mr. Lorry. “Ifyou say eligible, you are eligible.”“Am I not prosperous?” asked Stryver.“Oh! if you come to prosperous, you are prosperous,” said Mr.Lorry.“And advancing?”“If you come to advancing, you know,” said Mr. Lorry,delighted to be able to make another admission, “nobody candoubt that.”“Then what on earth is your meaning, Mr. Lorry?” demandedStryver, perceptibly crestfallen.“Well! I—Were you going there now?” asked Mr. Lorry.“Straight!” said Stryver, with a plump of his fist on the desk.“Then I think I wouldn’t, if I was you.”“Why,” said Stryver. “Now, I’ll put you in a corner,” forensicallyshaking a forefinger at him. “You are a man of business and boundto have a reason. State your reason. Why wouldn’t you go?”“Because,” said Mr. Lorry, “I wouldn’t go on such an objectwithout having some cause to believe that I should succeed.”“D—n ME!” cried Stryver, “but this beats everything.”Mr. Lorry glanced at the distant House, and glanced at theangry Stryver.“Here’s a man of business—a man of years—a man ofexperience—in a bank,” said Stryver; “and having summed upthree leading reasons for complete success, he says there’s noreason at all! Says it with his head on!” Mr. Stryver remarkedupon the peculiarity as if it would have been infinitely lessremarkable if he had said it with his head off.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two Cities“When I speak of success, I speak of success with the younglady; and when I speak of causes and reasons to make successprobable, I speak of causes and reasons that will tell as such withthe young lady. The young lady, my good sir,” said Mr. Lorry,mildly tapping the Stryver arm, “the young lady. The young ladygoes before all.”“Then you mean to tell me, Mr. Lorry,” said Stryver, squaringhis elbows, “that it is your deliberate opinion that the young ladyat present in question is a mincing Fool?”“Not exactly so. I mean to tell you, Mr. Stryver,” said Mr. Lorry,reddening, “that I will hear no disrespectful word of that younglady from any lips; and that if I knew any man—which I hope I donot—whose taste was so coarse, and whose temper was sooverbearing, that he could not restrain himself from speakingdisrespectfully of that young lady at this desk, not even Tellson’sshould prevent my giving him a piece of my mind.”The necessity of being angry in a suppressed tone had put Mr.Stryver’s blood-vessels into a dangerous state when it was his turnto be angry; Mr. Lorry’s veins, methodical as their courses couldusually be, were in no better state now it was his turn.“That is what I mean to tell you, sir,” said Mr. Lorry. “Pray letthere be no mistake about it.”Mr. Stryver sucked the end of a ruler for a little while, and thenstood hitting a tune out of his teeth with it, which probably gavehim the toothache. He broke the awkward silence by saying:“This is something new to me. Mr. Lorry. You deliberatelyadvise me not to go up to Soho and offer myself—myself, Stryverof the King’s Bench bar?”“Do you ask me for my advice, Mr. Stryver?”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two Cities“Yes, I do.”“Very good. Then I give it, and you have repeated it correctly.”“And all I can say of it is,” laughed Stryver with a vexed laugh,“that this—ha, ha!—beats everything past, present, and to come.”“Now understand me,” pursued Mr. Lorry. “As a man ofbusiness, I am not justified in saying anything about this matter,for, as a man of business, I know nothing of it. But, as an oldfellow, who has carried Miss Manette in his arms, who is thetrusted friend of Miss Manette and of her father too, and who has agreat affection for them both, I have spoken. The confidence is notof my seeking, recollect. Now, you think I may not be right?”“Not I!” said Stryver, whistling. “I can’t undertake to find thirdparties in common sense; I can only find it for myself. I supposesense in certain quarters; you suppose mincing bread-and-butternonsense. It’s new to me, but you are right, I daresay.”“What I suppose, Mr. Stryver, I claim to characterise for myself.And understand me, sir,” said Mr. Lorry, quickly flushing again, “Iwill not—not even at Tellson’s—have it characterised for me byany gentleman breathing.“There! I beg your pardon!” said Stryver.“Granted. Thank you. Well, Mr. Stryver, I was about to say:—itmight be painful too you to find yourself mistaken, it might bepainful to Doctor Manette to have the task of being explicit withyou, it might be very painful to Miss Manette to have the task ofbeing explicit with you. You know the terms upon which I havethe honour and happiness to stand with the family. If you please,committing you in no way, representing you in no way, I willundertake to correct my advice by the exercise of a little newobservation and judgment expressly brought to bear upon it. IfCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two Citiesyou should then be dissatisfied with it, you can but test itssoundness for yourself; if on the other hand, you should besatisfied with it, and it should be what it now is, it may spare allsides what is best spared. What do you say?”“How long would you keep me in town?”“Oh! It is only a question of a few hours. I could go down toSoho in the evening, and come to your chambers afterwards.”“Then I say yes,” said Stryver: “I won’t go up there now, I amnot so hot upon it as that comes to: I say yes, and I shall expect youto look in tonight. Good morning.”Then Mr. Stryver turned and burst out of the Bank, causingsuch a concussion of air on his passage through, that to stand upagainst it bowing behind the two counters, required the utmostremaining strength of the two ancient clerks. Those venerable andfeeble persons were always seen by the public in the act of bowing,and were popularly believed, when they had bowed a customerout, still to keep on bowing in the empty office until they bowedanother customer in.The barrister was keen enough to divine that the banker wouldnot have gone so far in his expression of opinion on any less solidground than moral certainty. Unprepared as he was for the largepill he had to swallow, he got it down. “And now,” said Mr.Stryver, shaking his forensic forefinger at the Temple in general,when it was down, “my way out of this is to put you all in thewrong.”It was a bit of the art of an Old Bailey tactician, in which hefound great relief. “You shall not put me in the wrong, younglady,” said Mr. Stryver; “I’ll do that for you.”Accordingly, when Mr. Lorry called that night as late as tenCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsA Tale of Two Citieso’clock, Mr. Stryver, among a quantity of books and papers,littered out for the purpose, seemed to have nothing less on hismind than the subject of the morning. He even showed surprisewhen he saw Mr. Lorry, and was altogether in an absent andpreoccupied state.“Well!” said that good-natured emissary, after a full half-hour ofbootless attempts to bring him round to the question. “I have beento Soho.”“To Soho?” repeated Mr. Stryver, coldly. “Oh, to be sure! Whatam I thinking of!”“And I have no doubt,” said Mr. Lorry, “that I was right in theconversation we had. My opinion is confirmed, and I reiterate myadvice.”“I assure you,” returned Mr. Stryver, in the friendliest way,“that I am sorry for it on your account, and sorry for it on the poorfather’s account. I know this must always be a sore subject withthe family; let us say no more about it.”“I don’t understand you,” said Mr. Lorry.“I daresay not,” rejoined Stryver, nodding his head in asmoothing and final way; “no matter, no matter.”