a disorganised city, if it were not a disorganised city there would be no occasion to send somebody from our House here to our House there, who knows the city and the business, of old, and is in Tellson's confidence. As to the uncertain travelling, the long journey, and the winter weather, if I were not prepared to submit myself to a few inconveniences for the sake of Tellson's, after all these years, who ought to be?'

`I wish I were going myself,' said Charles Darnay, somewhat restlessly, and like one thinking aloud.

`Indeed! You are a pretty fellow to object and advise!' exclaimed Mr. Lorry. `You wish you were going yourself? And you a Frenchman born? You are a wise counsellor.'

`My dear Mr. Lorry, it is because I am a Frenchman born, that the thought (which I did not mean to utter here, however) has passed through my mind often. One cannot help thinking, having had some sympathy for the miserable people, and having abandoned something to them,' he spoke here in his former thoughtful manner, `that one might be listened to, and might have the power to persuade to some restraint. Only last night, after you had left us, when I was talking to Lucie---'

`When you were talking to Lucie,' Mr. Lorry repeated. `Yes. I wonder you are not ashamed to mention the name of Lucie! Wishing you were going to France at this time of day!'

`However, I am not going,' said Charles Darnay, with a smile. `It is more to the purpose that you say you are.'

`And I am, in plain reality. The truth is, my dear Charles,' Mr. Lorry glanced at the distant House, and lowered his voice, `you can have no conception of the difficulty with which our business is transacted, and of the peril in which our books and papers over yonder are involved. The Lord above knows what the compromising consequences would be to numbers of people, if some of our documents were seized or destroyed; and they might be, at any time, you know, for who can say that Paris is not set a-fire to- day, or sacked to-morrow! Now, a judicious selection from these with the least possible delay, and the burying of them, or otherwise getting of them out of harm's way, is within the power (without loss of precious time) of scarcely any one but myself, if any one. And shall I hang back, when Tellson's knows this and says this--Tellson's, whose bread I have eaten these sixty years--because I am a little stiff about the joints? Why, I am a boy, sir, to half a dozen old codgers here!'

`How I admire the gallantry of your youthful spirit, Mr. Lorry.'

`Tut! Nonsense, sir!--And, my dear Charles,' said Mr. Lorry, glancing at the House again, `you are to remember, that getting things out of Paris at this present time, no matter what things, is next to an impossibility. Papers and precious matters were this very day brought to us here (I speak in strict confidence; it is not business-like to whisper it, even to you), by the strangest bearers you cap imagine, every one of whom had his head hanging on by a single hair as he passed the Barriers. At another time, our parcels would come and go, as easily as in business-like Old England; but now, everything is stopped.'

`And do you really go to-night?'

`I really go to-night, for the case has become too pressing to admit of delay.'

`And do you take no one with you?'

`All sorts of people have been proposed to me, but I will have nothing to say to any of them. I intend to take Jerry. Jerry has been my body-guard on Sunday nights for a long time past, and I am used to him. Nobody will suspect Jerry of being anything but an English bull-dog, or of having any design in his head but to fly at anybody who touches his master.'

`I must say again that I heartily admire your gallantry and youthfulness.'