Page 57 - A TALE OF TWO CITIES

A Tale of Two Cities

young lady, who were seated in a corner. Other company
were there: two playing cards, two playing dominoes,
three standing by the counter lengthening out a short
supply of wine. As he passed behind the counter, he took

notice that the elderly gentleman said in a look to the
young lady, ‘This is our man.’
‘What the devil do YOU do in that galley there?’ said
Monsieur Defarge to himself; ‘I don’t know you.’
But, he feigned not to notice the two strangers, and fell
into discourse with the triumvirate of customers who were
drinking at the counter.
‘How goes it, Jacques?’ said one of these three to
Monsieur Defarge. ‘Is all the spilt wine swallowed?’
‘Every drop, Jacques,’ answered Monsieur Defarge.
When this interchange of Christian name was effected,
Madame Defarge, picking her teeth with her toothpick,
coughed another grain of cough, and raised her eyebrows
by the breadth of another line.
‘It is not often,’ said the second of the three, addressing
Monsieur Defarge, ‘that many of these miserable beasts
know the taste of wine, or of anything but black bread and
death. Is it not so, Jacques?’
‘It is so, Jacques,’ Monsieur Defarge returned.

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