A TALE OF TWO CITIES.

In Three Books.

BY CHARLES DICKENS.

BOOK THE SECOND. THE GOLDEN THREAD.

CHAPTER XIX.    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. For, going to the door of
the Doctor's room and looking in, he perceived
that the shoemaker's bench and tools were put
aside again, and that the Doctor himself sat
reading at the window. He was in his usual
morning dress, and his face (which Mr. Lorry
could distinctly see), though still very pale, was
calmly studious and attentive.

Even when he had satisfied himself that he
was awake, Mr. Lorry felt giddily uncertain for
some few moments whether the late shoemaking
might not be a disturbed dream of his own; for,
did not his eyes show him his friend before him
in his accustomed clothing and aspect, and
employed as usual; and was there any sign within
their range, that the change of which he had so
strong an impression had actually happened?

It was but the inquiry of his first confusion
and astonishment, the answer being obvious. If
the impression were not produced by a real
corresponding, and sufficient cause, how came he,
Jarvis Lorry, there? How came he to have
fallen asleep, in his clothes, on the sofa in
Doctor Manette's consulting-room, and to be
debating these points outside the Doctor's
bedroom door in the early morning?

Within a few minutes, Miss Pross stood
whispering at his side. If he had had any particle
of doubt left, her talk would of necessity
have resolved it; but he was by that time
clear-headed, and had none. He advised that
they should let the time go by until the regular
breakfast-hour, and should then meet the
Doctor as if nothing unusual had occurred. If he
appeared to be in his customary state of mind,
Mr. Lorry would then cautiously proceed to
seek direction and guidance from the opinion he
had been, in his anxiety, so anxious to obtain.

Miss Pross, submitting herself to his
judgment, the scheme was worked out with care.
Having abundance of time for his usual
methodical toilette, Mr. Lorry presented himself at
the breakfast-hour in his usual white linen and
with his usual neat leg. The Doctor was
summoned in the usual way, and came to
breakfast.

So far as it was possible to comprehend him
without overstepping those delicate and gradual
approaches which Mr. Lorry felt to be the only
safe advance, he at first supposed that his
daughter's marriage had taken place yesterday.
An incidental allusion, purposely thrown out, to
the day of the week, and the day of the month,
set him thinking and counting, and evidently
made him uneasy. In all other respects,
however, he was so composedly himself, that Mr.
Lorry determined to have the aid he sought.
And that aid was his own.

Therefore, when the breakfast was done and
cleared away, and he and the Doctor were left
together, Mr. Lorry said, feelingly:

"My dear Manette, I am anxious to have
your opinion, in confidence, on a very curious
case in which I am deeply interested; that is
to say, it is very curious to me; perhaps, to your
better information it may be less so."

Glancing at his hands, which were discoloured
by his late work, the Doctor looked troubled,
and listened attentively. He had already glanced
at his hands more than once.

"Doctor Manette," said Mr. Lorry, touching
him affectionately on the arm, "the case is the
case of a particularly dear friend of mine. Pray
give your mind to it, and advise me well for his
sake—and above all, for his daughter's—his
daughter's, my dear Manette."

"If I understand," said the Doctor, in a
subdued tone, "some mental shock——?"

"Yes!"

"Be explicit," said the Doctor. "Spare no
detail."

Mr. Lorry saw that they understood one
another, and proceeded.

"My dear Manette, it is the case of an old
and a prolonged shock, of great acuteness and
severity, to the affections, the feelings,  the—the
—as you express it—the mind. The mind.
It is the case of a shock under which the sufferer
was borne down, one cannot say for how long,
because I believe he cannot calculate the time
himself, and there are no other means of getting