which lasted some three hours, he had plenty of shouting and weeping and sentimental company, and I throughout Defarge held him by the collar, as if to restrain him from flying at the objects of his brief devotion and tearing them pieces.

`Bravo' said Defarge, clapping him on the back when it was Over, like a patron; `you are a good boy!'

The mender of roads was now coming to himself, and was mistrustful of having made a mistake in his late demonstrations; but no.

`You are the fellow we want,' said Defarge, in his ear; `you make these fools believe that it will last for ever. Then, they are the more insolent, and it is the nearer ended.'

`Hey!' cried the mender of roads, reflectively; `that's true.' `These fools know nothing. While they despise your breath, and would stop it for ever and ever, in you or in a hundred like you rather than in one of their own horses or dogs, they only know what your breath tells them. Let it deceive them, then, a little longer; it cannot deceive them too much.'

Madame Defarge looked superciliously at the client, and nodded in confirmation.

`As to you,' said she, `you would shout and shed tears for anything, if it made a show and a noise. Say! Would you not?'

`Truly, madame, I think so. For the moment.'

`If you were shown a great heap of dolls, and were set upon them to pluck them to pieces and despoil them for your own advantage, you would pick out the richest and gayest. Say! Would you not?'

`Truly yes, madame.'

`Yes. And if you were shown a flock of birds, unable to fly, and were set upon them to strip them of their feathers for your own advantage, you would set upon the birds of the finest feathers; would you not?'

`It is true, madame.'

`You have seen both dolls and birds today,' said Madame Defarge, with a wave of her hand towards the place where they had last been apparent; `now, go home!'