A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations (Oprah's Book Club) (12 page)

Mr Carton, who had so long sat looking at the ceiling of the court, changed neither his place nor his attitude, even in this excitement. While his learned friend, Mr Stryver, massing his papers before him, whispered with those who sat near, and from time to time glanced anxiously at the jury; while all the spectators moved more or less, and grouped themselves anew; while even My Lord himself arose from his seat, and slowly paced up and down his platform, not unattended by a suspicion in the minds of the audience that his state was feverish; this one man sat leaning back, with his torn gown half off him, his untidy wig put on just as it had happened to light on his head after its removal, his hands in his pockets, and his eyes on the ceiling as they had been all day. Something especially reckless in his demeanour, not only gave him a disreputable look, but so diminished the strong resemblance he undoubtedly bore to the prisoner (which his momentary earnestness, when they were compared together, had strengthened), that many of the lookers-on, taking note of him now, said to one another they would hardly have thought the two were so alike. Mr Cruncher made the observation to his next neighbour, and added, ‘I’d hold half a guinea that h
e
don’t get no law-work to do. Don’t look like the sort of one to get any, do he?’

Yet, this Mr Carton took in more of the details of the scene than he appeared to take in; for now, when Miss Manette’s head dropped upon her father’s breast, he was the first to see it, and to say audibly: ‘Officer! look to that young lady. Help the gentleman to take her out. Don’t you see she will fall!’

There was much commiseration for her as she was removed, and much sympathy with her father. It had evidently been a great distress to him, to have the days of his imprisonment recalled. He had shown strong internal agitation when he was questioned, and that pondering or brooding look which made him old, had been upon him, like a heavy cloud, ever since. As he passed out, the jury, who had turned back and paused a moment, spoke, through their foreman.

They were not agreed, and wished to retire. My Lord (perhaps with George Washington on his mind) showed some surprise that they were not agreed, but signified his pleasure that they should retire under watch and ward, and retired himself. The trial had lasted all day, and the lamps in the court were now being lighted. It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. The spectators dropped off to get refreshment, and the prisoner withdrew to the back of the dock, and sat down.

Mr Lorry, who had gone out when the young lady and her father went out, now reappeared, and beckoned to Jerry: who, in the slackened interest, could easily get near him.

‘Jerry, if you wish to take something to eat, you can. But, keep in the way. You will be sure to hear when the jury come in. Don’t be a moment behind them, for I want you to take the verdict back to the bank. You are the quickest messenger I know, and will get to Temple Bar long before I can.’

Jerry had just enough forehead to knuckle, and he knuckled it in acknowledgment of this communication and a shilling. Mr Carton came up at the moment, and touched Mr Lorry on the arm.

‘How is the young lady?’

‘She is greatly distressed; but her father is comforting her, and she feels the better for being out of court.’

‘I’ll tell the prisoner so. It won’t do for a respectable bank-gentleman like you, to be seen speaking to him publicly, you know.’

Mr Lorry reddened, as if he were conscious of having debated the point in his mind, and Mr Carton made his way to the outside of the bar. The way out of court lay in that direction, and Jerry followed him, all eyes, ears, and spikes.

‘Mr Darnay!’

The prisoner came forward directly.

‘You will naturally be anxious to hear of the witness, Miss Manette. She will do very well. You have seen the worst of her agitation.’

‘I am deeply sorry to have been the cause of it. Could you tell her so for me, with my fervent acknowledgments?’

‘Yes, I could. I will, if you ask it.’

Mr Carton’s manner was so careless as to be almost insolent. He stood, half turned from the prisoner, lounging with his elbow against the bar.

‘I do ask it. Accept my cordial thanks.’

‘What,’ said Carton, still only half turned towards him, ‘do you expect, Mr Darnay?’

‘The worst.’

‘It’s the wisest thing to expect, and the likeliest. But I think their withdrawing is in your favour.’

Loitering on the way out of court not being allowed, Jerry heard no more; but left them – so like each other in feature, so unlike each other in manner – standing side by side, both reflected in the glass above them.

An hour and a half limped heavily away in the thief-and-rascal-crowded passages below, even though assisted off with mutton pies and ale. The hoarse messenger, uncomfortably seated on a form after taking that refection, had dropped into a doze, when a loud murmur and a rapid tide of people setting up the stairs that led to the court, carried him along with them.

‘Jerry! Jerry!’ Mr Lorry was already calling at the door when he got there.

‘Here, sir! It’s a fight to get back again. Here I am, sir!’

Mr Lorry handed him a paper through the throng. ‘Quick! Have you got it?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Hastily written on the paper was the word ‘acquitted’.

‘If you had sent the message, “Recalled to Life”, again,’ muttered Jerry, as he turned, ‘I should have known what you meant, this time.’

He had no opportunity of saying, or so much as thinking, anything else, until he was clear of the Old Bailey; for, the crowd came pouring out with a vehemence that nearly took him off his legs, and a loud buzz swept into the street as if the baffled blue-flies were dispersing in search of other carrion.

 

 

[END OF INSTALMENT 6]

From the dimly-lighted passages of the court, the last sediment of the human stew that had been boiling there all day, was straining off, when Doctor Manette, Lucie Manette his daughter, Mr Lorry, the solicitor for the defence, and its counsel Mr Stryver, stood gathered around Mr Charles Darnay – just released – congratulating him on his escape from death.

It would have been difficult by a far brighter light, to recognise in Doctor Manette, intellectual of face and upright of bearing, the shoemaker of the garret in Paris. Yet, no one could have looked at him twice, without looking again: even though the opportunity of observation had not extended to the mournful cadence of his low grave voice, and to the abstraction that overclouded him fitfully, without any apparent reason. While one external cause, and that a reference to his long lingering agony, would always – as on the trial – evoke this condition from the depths of his soul, it was also in its nature to arise of itself, and to draw a gloom over him, as incomprehensible to those unacquainted with his story as if they had seen the shadow of the actual Bastille thrown upon him by a summer sun, when the substance was three hundred miles away.

Only his daughter had the power of charming this black brooding from his mind. She was the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery: and the sound of her voice, the light of her face, the touch of her hand, had a strong beneficial influence with him almost always. Not absolutely always, for she could recal some occasions on which her power had failed; but, they were few and slight, and she believed them over.

Mr Darnay had kissed her hand fervently and gratefully, and had turned to Mr Stryver, whom he warmly thanked. Mr Stryver, a man of little more than thirty, but looking twenty years older than he was, stout, loud, red, bluff, and free from any drawback of delicacy, had a pushing way of shouldering himself (morally and physically) into companies and conversations, that augured well for his shouldering his way up in life.

He still had his wig and gown on, and he said, squaring himself at his late client to that degree that he squeezed the innocent Mr Lorry clean out of the group: ‘I am glad to have brought you off with honour, Mr Darnay. It was an infamous prosecution, grossly infamous; but not the less likely to succeed, on that account.’

‘You have laid me under an obligation to you for life – in two senses,’ said his late client, taking his hand.

‘I have done my best for you, Mr Darnay; and my best is as good as another man’s, I believe.’

It clearly being incumbent on somebody to say, ‘Much better,’ Mr Lorry said it; perhaps not quite disinterestedly, but with the interested object of squeezing himself back again.

‘You think so?’ said Mr Stryver. ‘Well! you have been present all day, and you ought to know. You are a man of business, too.’

‘And as such,’ quoth Mr Lorry, whom the counsel learned in the law had now shouldered back into the group, just as he had previously shouldered him out of it – ‘as such, I will appeal to Doctor Manette, to break up this conference and order us all to our homes. Miss Lucie looks ill, Mr Darnay has had a terrible day, we are worn out.’

‘Speak for yourself, Mr Lorry,’ said Stryver; ‘I have a night’s work to do yet. Speak for yourself.’

‘I speak for myself,’ answered Mr Lorry, ‘and for Mr Darnay, and for Miss Lucie, and—Miss Lucie, do you not think I may speak for us all?’ He asked her the question pointedly, and with a glance at her father.

His face had become frozen, as it were, in a very curious look at Darnay: an intent look, deepening into a frown of dislike and distrust, not even unmixed with fear. With this strange expression on him his thoughts had wandered away.

‘My father,’ said Lucie, softly laying her hand on his.

He slowly shook the shadow off, and turned to her.

‘Shall we go home, my father?’

With a long breath, he answered, ‘Yes.’

The friends of the acquitted prisoner had dispersed, under the impression – which he himself had originated – that he would not be released that night. The lights were nearly all extinguished in the passages, the iron gates were being closed with a jar and a rattle, and the dismal place was deserted until to-morrow morning’s interest of gallows, pillory, whipping-post, and branding-iron, should repeople it. Walking between her father and Mr Darnay, Lucie Manette passed into the open air. A hackney-coach was called, and the father and daughter departed in it.

Mr Stryver had left them in the passages, to shoulder his way back to the robing-room. Another person who had not joined the group, or interchanged a word with any one of them, but who had been leaning against the wall where its shadow was darkest, had silently strolled out after the rest, and had looked on until the coach drove away. He now stepped up to where Mr Lorry and Mr Darnay stood upon the pavement.

‘So, Mr Lorry! Men of business may speak to Mr Darnay now?’

Nobody had made any acknowledgment of Mr Carton’s part in the day’s proceedings; nobody had known of it. He was unrobed, and was none the better for it in appearance.

‘If you knew what a conflict goes on in the business mind, when the business mind is divided between good-natured impulse and business appearances, you would be amused, Mr Darnay.’

Mr Lorry reddened, and said, warmly, ‘You have mentioned that before, sir. We men of business who serve a House, are not our own masters. We have to think of the House, more than of ourselves.’

‘
I
know,
I
know,’ rejoined Mr Carton, carelessly. ‘Don’t be nettled, Mr Lorry. You are as good as another, I have no doubt; better, I dare say.’

‘And indeed, sir,’ pursued Mr Lorry, not minding him, ‘I really don’t know what you have to do with the matter. If you’ll excuse me, as very much your elder, for saying so, I really don’t know that it is your business.’

‘Business! Bless you,
I
have no business,’ said Mr Carton.

‘It is a pity you have not, sir.’

‘I think so too.’

‘If you had,’ pursued Mr Lorry, ‘perhaps you would attend to it.’

‘Lord love you, no! – I shouldn’t,’ said Mr Carton.

‘Well, sir!’ cried Mr Lorry, thoroughly heated by his indifference, ‘business is a very good thing, and a very respectable thing. And, sir, if business imposes its restraints and its silences and impediments, Mr Darnay as a young gentleman of generosity knows how to make allowance for that circumstance. Mr Darnay, good night, God bless you, sir! I hope you have been this day preserved for a prosperous and happy life. – Chair there!’

Perhaps a little angry with himself, as well as with the barrister, Mr Lorry bustled into the chair, and was carried off to Tellson’s. Carton, who smelt of port wine, and did not appear to be quite sober, laughed then, and turned to Darnay:

‘This is a strange chance that throws you and me together. This must be a strange night to you, standing alone here with your counterpart on these street-stones?’

‘I hardly seem yet,’ returned Charles Darnay, ‘to belong to this world again.’

‘I don’t wonder at it; it’s not so long since you were pretty far advanced on your way to another. You speak faintly.’

‘I begin to think I
am
faint.’

‘Then why the devil don’t you dine? I dined, myself, while those numskulls were deliberating which world you should belong to – this, or some other. Let me show you the nearest tavern to dine well at.’

Drawing his arm through his own, he took him down Ludgatehill to Fleet-street, and so, up a covered way, into a tavern. Here, they were shown into a little room, where Charles Darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good wine: while Carton sat opposite to him at the same table, with his separate bottle of port before him, and his fully half-insolent manner upon him.

‘Do you feel, yet, that you belong to this terrestrial scheme again, Mr Darnay?’

‘I am frightfully confused regarding time and place; but I am so far mended as to feel that.’