Chapter 26 Chapter Eighteen Nine Days

The sun was shining on the wedding day.Everything was in order, but the doctor closed the door and talked with Charles Darnay in the room, and everyone waited outside.The beautiful bride, Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross were all getting ready for church.After a process of adaptation, Miss Pross had come to accept the inescapable fact that there was nothing left for her but absolute joy in the marriage, though she still lingered and hoped that the bridegroom would be her brother Solomon. "So," said Mr. Lorry, who never admired his bride enough, and walked round her, admiring every detail of her sober and beautiful dress, "so it was for today that I carried you across the Channel." , you were such a little doll then, my dear Lucy! God bless! What a small thing I thought I was doing! I did my friend Mr. Charles, but I don't know what it would do. How inadequate!"

"I'm afraid you wouldn't have thought of it then," said solid-eyed Miss Pross. "How would you know? Nonsense!" "Nonsense? Well, don't cry then," said gentle Mr. Lorry. "I didn't cry," said Miss Pross, "you did." "Me, my Pross?" (by this time Mr. Lorry had ventured to joke with her occasionally) "You were crying just now, I saw it, but I don't think it strange. That silver set you gave us will not help weeping. When it came in the box last night," said Miss Pross, "There was no fork or spoon in the box that kept me from crying until I couldn't see anything."

"I am very satisfied," said Mr. Lorry, "but, on my honor, I did not mean to have my little gift hidden. Good heavens! It is now for me to reckon what I have lost." It's about time. My God, my God, my God! Come to think of it, there could be a Mrs. Lorry at any time in nearly fifty years!" "That's not the case!" said Miss Pross. "Do you think there could never have been a Mrs. Lorry?" asked the gentleman called Lorry. "Pooh!" replied Miss Pross, "you were a bachelor in the cradle!" "Yes, that seems quite probable, too," said Mr. Lorry, grinningly adjusting his little wig.

"You were doomed to be a bachelor before you were in the cradle," went on Miss Pross." "Then I feel," said Mr. Lorry, "that I am being treated very unfairly. I should have a choice and a say in my own way of life. Enough! My dear Lucy," he said with his hand Putting her arms around her waist comfortingly, "I heard them making noise in the next room. Miss Pross and I are both genuine business people, and we don't want to lose this last chance to tell you something you like to hear, dear Yes, you can put your father in the hands of someone who is as sincere and loving as you are, and he will be given the kind of care you can imagine. Your two weeks in Warwickshire and the environs Here, even Tellson's Bank is subject to his demands (comparatively speaking). When two weeks go by, and he goes to Wales with you and your dear husband, you will say that I handed you a body Healthiest and happiest him. Now I hear footsteps coming to the door. Let me kiss my darling station girl before someone declares her his, and give him an old-fashioned bachelor's blessing!"

He held the beautiful face at a distance, observed the unforgettable expression on her forehead, and with genuine tenderness and delicacy he hugged her bright blond hair to his own little brown wig. .If it's supposed to be called old-fashioned, it's as old as Adam. The door opened, and the Doctor and Charles Darnay came out.The doctor was pale and bloodless--he had not been so when they entered the room.However, his attitude was calm and his expression was as usual, but Mr. Lorry's shrewd eyes also saw some vague signs, indicating that the expression of avoidance and fear in the past had once again blown him like a cold wind.

He gave his daughter his arm, and led her down-stairs into the buggy which Mr. Lorry had hired for the day, and the others followed in another.It was not long before Charles Darnay and Lucy Manette were happily married in a nearby church, with no strange eyes watching. In addition to the sparkle of tears in everyone's smiling eyes when the wedding was done, there were also a few very sparkling diamonds that shone on the bride's hands.It was only recently freed from the dark corners of Mr. Lorry's pocket.The party went home to breakfast, and all was well.Before long, the blond hair that had mingled with the poor shoemaker's gray hair in the Paris garret was mingling with the white hair again in the morning sun.That was their farewell on the threshold.

Although the parting is not long, parting is very bitter.But her father encouraged her.Gently he shook off her embracing arms and said, "Take it, Charles, she's yours!" She waved her excited hand to them from the car window and left. The corner was far from wanderers and curious people, and the preparations for the wedding were so austere that in a short while the Doctor, Mr. Lorry, and Miss Pross found themselves alone.As they entered the cool, pleasant shadow of the ancient hall, Mr. Lorry noticed that the Doctor had undergone a great change, as if the golden arm that had been raised there had dealt him a fatal blow.

Naturally, he had suppressed himself severely, and once the suppression was relaxed, there would inevitably be a rebound.But what worried Mr. Lorry was the reappearance of his usual frightened and dazed look.The way he clutched his head absently and slumped desolately into his room as they went upstairs reminded Mr. Lorry of Defarge the innkeeper and the coach ride under the stars. "I think," he whispered to Miss Pross, after a moment of anxious thought, "I think we'd better not talk to him or disturb him just now. Now I must go back to Tellson and see, at once." Just go, come right back. Then we'll take him for a ride into the country, have dinner there, and then everything will be all right."

It was easy for Mr. Lorry to get into Tellson, but difficult to get out, and he was delayed there for two hours.On his return he went straight up the old staircase and into the doctor's room without asking the servants what had happened.A low knock stopped him. "My God!" he said, taken aback, "what's the matter?" Miss Pross whispered in his ear with a full face of panic, "Oh my God, my God! It's all over!" she cried, wringing her hands, "how to explain to the little bird? He doesn't know me anymore Making shoes!" Mr. Lorry made an effort to calm her down, and went himself into the doctor's room.The bench had been moved to face the sunlight, and the doctor was busy with his head down, just like when he saw the shoemaker working.

"Dr. Manette, my dear friend, Dr. Manette!" The doctor looked at him for a moment, half questioning, half angry that someone had spoken to him, then dropped his head and went to work again. He had taken off his coat and vest as he did in the past when he was making shoes, and opened the collar of his shirt, and even his haggard and yellow face had returned.He worked hard, but also impatiently, as if unhappy to be interrupted. Mr. Lorry glanced at what he was doing, said that the shoe was old-fashioned in shape and size, picked up another shoe beside him, and asked what it was.

"Young lady's walking shoes," he muttered, without looking up. "It should have been done a long time ago. Put it down." "But, Doctor Manette, look at me!" He obeyed, in the same mechanical, submissive manner as before, without stopping. "Do you know me, my dear friend. Think again. This profession is not for you. Think, dear friend!" It was impossible to get him to say more than one word.When asked to look up, he occasionally looked up, but no matter how much he tried to persuade him, he didn't say a word.He was always working, working, working, and not saying a word.Words fell on him as they fell on echoless walls or into voids.The only hope Mr. Lorry could find was that sometimes he would look up by himself, with what seemed to be an expression of curiosity or apprehension on his face--as if to answer some question in his mind. Mr. Lorry felt that two things were more important than any other: first, that he must be kept secret from Lucy; and second, that he must be kept secret from all who knew him.He immediately cooperated with Miss Pross to take measures to solve the second problem, and announced that the doctor was not in good health and needed a few days of complete recuperation.In order to deceive his daughter in good faith, Miss Pross had to write a letter, saying that the doctor was out of town, and referring to a letter of his own hand that did not exist, saying it was only scribbled. Two or three lines were sent to her by the same post as this letter. In addition to taking these necessary measures, Mr. Lowry also hopes that the doctors will return to normal on their own.If he soon recovered, Mr. Lorry was prepared to take another step, which was to find the doctor's illness which he thought best ended. In the hope of his own recovery, and of the third measure being carried out, Mr. Lorry resolved to observe him intently, and to draw his attention as little as possible.So for the first time in his life he made arrangements at Tellsons, asked for leave, and settled under the doctor's window. He soon discovered that it was not only useless but harmful to talk to the doctor, because it annoyed him when he was forced to talk, and from the first day he gave up that intention, resolving to keep himself in his presence only as a measure of what had happened to him. A silent confrontation with the illusion of falling into or about to fall into.So he kept reading and writing in the window seat, and expressed in every natural and pleasant way he could think of that this room was not a prison. Dr. Manette ate and drank what was given him the first day, and worked till it was too dark to see the work--and he did half of it, after Mr. Lorry could not read or write anyway. Hour.Then he was packing up his tools for the next morning, when Mr. Lorry rose and said to him: "Do you want to go out for a while?" He stared at the floor on both sides in a proper way, searched in a proper way, and repeated in his own small voice: "go out?" "Yes, go for a walk with me. Why not?" He also tried hard to say why not?But there was no sound.But Mr. Lorry felt that as he sat hunched over his stool in the gloom, with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, he was also saying to himself in some vague way, "Why not?" ?” The shrewdness of the businessman saw a favorable condition here, and he was determined to seize it. Miss Pross and he divided the night into two shifts, observing him in shifts in the adjoining room.The doctor walked up and down for a long time before going to bed, but fell asleep immediately after finally lying down.In the morning he got up at the right time, then went straight to the bench and started working. The next day Mr. Lorry greeted him cheerfully by his name, and spoke to him of matters of late familiar to both parties.He didn't answer, but evidently heard him, and thought, though not clearly.This encouraged Mr. Lorry.He made Miss Pross come in several times during the day to do the housework. ．Then they talked quickly about Lucy, and about Lucy's father (who was next to him), exactly as usual, as if there were nothing out of the ordinary.All of this was done naturally, without intentional performance, and each time was short and not too frequent, so as not to upset him.Mr. Lorry's friendly heart felt relieved, and he believed that the doctor looked up to him more often, and seemed to be stimulated by seeing many things around him that did not agree with his feelings. When dusk came again, Lord Lorry asked him again as before: "Dear doctor, would you like to go out for a while?" He repeated, "Get out?" "Yes, what's wrong with going out for a walk with me?" This time Mr. Lorry pretended to go out after failing to induce him to answer.He stayed out for an hour before coming back.During this time the doctor had come and sat down on the seat under the window, looking at the sycamore tree under the window.But as soon as Mr. Lorry came back, he slipped quietly back to his old stool. The time passed very slowly, and Mr. Lorry's hopes grew fainter and his heart more and more heavy, and every day became heavier.The third day came and went, then the fourth day, five days, six days, seven days, eight days, nine days. Mr. Lorry went through these anxious days with growing hopelessness and a growing heavy heart.The two were tight-lipped, and Lucy was very happy and didn't notice it at all.But Mr. Lorry could not help noticing that the shoemaker's somewhat unfamiliar hands had become terribly skilled again, and that by the evening of the ninth day not only was he more eager to work than ever before, but his hands were also stronger than ever. More dexterous than ever.