`Age, about forty years; height, about five feet nine; black hair; complexion dark; generally, rather handsome visage; eyes dark, face thin, long, and sallow; nose aquiline, but not straight, having a peculiar inclination towards the left cheek; expression, therefore, sinister.'

`Eh my faith. It is a portrait!' said madame, laughing. `He shall be registered tomorrow.'

They turned into the wine-shop, which was closed (for it was midnight) and where Madame Defarge immediately took her post at her desk, counted the small moneys that had been taken during her absence, examined the stock, went through the entries in the book, made other entries of her own, checked the serving man in every possible way, and finally dismissed him to bed. Then she turned out the contents of the bowl of money for the second time, and began knotting them up in her handkerchief, in a chain of separate knots, for safe keeping through the night. All this while, Defarge, with his pipe in his mouth, walked up and down, complacently admiring, but never interfering; in which condition, indeed, as to the business and his domestic affairs, he walked up and down through life.

The night was hot, and the shop, close shut and surrounded by so foul a neighbourhood, was ill-smelling. Monsieur Defarge's olfactory sense was by no means delicate, but the stock of wine smelt much stronger than it ever tasted, and so did the stock of rum and brandy and aniseed. He whiffed the compound of scents away, as he put down his smoked-out pipe.

`You are fatigued,' said madame, raising her glance as she knotted the money. `There are only the usual odours.'

`I am a little tired,' her husband acknowledged.

`You are a little depressed, too,' said madame, whose quick eyes had never been so intent on the accounts, but they had had a ray or two for him. `Oh, the men, the men!'

`But my dear!' began Defarge.

`But my dear!' repeated madame, nodding firmly; `but my dear! You are faint of heart tonight, my dear!'

`Well, then,' said Defarge, as if a thought were wrung Out of his breast, `it is a long time.'

`It is a long time,' repeated his wife; `and when is it not a long time? Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.'

`It does not take a long time to strike a man with Lightning,' said Defarge.

`How long,' demanded madame, composedly, `does it take to make and store the lightning? Tell me.'

Defarge raised his head thoughtfully, as if there were something in that too.

`It does not take a long time,' said madame, `for an earthquake to swallow a town. Eh well! Tell me how long it takes to prepare the earthquake?'

`A long time, I suppose,' said Defarge.

`But when it is ready, it takes place, and grinds to pieces everything before it. In the meantime, it is always preparing, though it is not seen or heard. That is your consolation. Keep it.'

She tied a knot with flashing eyes, as if it throttled a foe.

`I tell thee,' said madame, extending her right hand, for emphasis, `that although it is a long time on the road, it is on the road and coming. I tell thee it never retreats, and never stops. I tell thee it is always advancing. Look around and consider the lives of all the world that we know, consider the faces of all