of his discourse, `is wot I would respectfully offer to you, sir. A man don't see all this here a goin' on dreadful round him, in the way of Subjects without heads, dear me, plentiful enough fur to bring the price down to porterage and hardly that, without havin' his serious thoughts of things. And these here would be mine, if it wos so, entreatin' of you fur to bear in mind that wot I said just now, I up and said in the good cause when I might have kep' it back.'

`That at least is true,' said Mr. Lorry. `Say no more now. It may be that I shall yet stand your friend, if you deserve it, and, repent in action--not in words. I want no more

Mr. Cruncher knuckled his forehead, as Sydney Carton and the spy returned from the dark room. `Adieu, Mr. Barsad,' said the former; `our arrangement thus made, you have nothing to fear from me.'

He sat down in a chair on the hearth, over against Mr. Lorry. When they were alone, Mr. Lorry asked him what he had done?

`Not much. If it should go ill with the prisone I have ensured access to him, Once.'

Mr. Lorry's countenance fell.

`It is all I could do,' said Carton. `To propose too much, would be to put this man's head under the axe, and, as he himself said, nothing worse could happen to him if he were denounced. It was obviously the weakness of the position. There is no help for it.'

`But access to him,' said Mr. Lorry, `if it should go ill before the Tribunal, will not save him.'

`I never said it would.'

Mr. Lorry's eyes gradually sought the fire; his sympathy with his darling, and the heavy disappointment of this second arrest, gradually weakened them; he was an old man now, overborne with anxiety of late, and his tears fell.

`You are a good man and a true friend,' said Carton, in an altered voice. `Forgive me if I notice that you are affected. I could not see my father weep, and sit by, careless. And I could not respect your sorrow more, if you, were my father. You are free from that misfortune, however.

Though he said the last words, with a slip into his usual manner, there was a true feeling and respect both in his tone and in his touch, that Mr. Lorry, who had never seen the better side of him, was wholly unprepared for. He gave him his hand, and Carton gently pressed it.

`To return to poor Darnay,' said Carton. `Don't tell Her of this interview, or this arrangement. It would not enable Her to go to see him. She might think it was contrived, in case of the worst, to convey to him the means of anticipating the sentence.'

Mr. Lorry had not thought of that, and he looked quickly at Carton to see if it were in his mind. It seemed to be; he returned the look, and evidently understood it.

`She might think a thousand things,' Carton said, `and any of them would only add to her trouble. Don't speak of me to her. As I said to you when I first came, I had better not see her. I can put my hand out, to do any little helpful work for her that my hand can find to do, without that. You are going to her, I hope? She must be very desolate to-night.

`I am going now, directly.'

`I am glad of that. She has such a strong attachment to you and reliance on you. How does she look?'

`Anxious and unhappy, but very beautiful.' `Ah!'