Page 11 - A Tale of Two Cities

Miss Manette did not move, and her eyes were so fixed on Mr

Lorry’s that he was afraid that she might faint. He called for help,
and a kind woman from the hotel came and laid the young lady
carefully on a sofa.

‘Look at this poor dear girl, with her cold hands and her white
face!’ the woman cried, looking up crossly at Mr Lorry. ‘Couldn’t
you tell her what you had to tell her without frightening her almost
to death?’
A few days later, Mr Lorry and Miss Lucie Manette found
themselves in a suburb of Paris called Saint Antoine. Saint Antoine
was a grey and miserable place. It was as if a dark heavy cloud hung
over it – a cloud that would bring cold, dirt, sickness and hunger to
the people. That cloud hung over the whole of France at that time
and soon a storm would come that would shake the country from
top to bottom. But for now, life continued as normal in those narrow
streets which were full of hunger.

When Mr Lorry and Lucie arrived at the café owned by the
doctor’s old servant, Defarge, he was not there, but his wife showed
them to a table to wait for him to return. She was a strongly-built

woman of about thirty years old, with a fixed look on her face. She
had the look of someone who knows exactly what she wants and
how to get it. While Mr Lorry and Lucie waited, she sat quietly
knitting in the corner of the café.

When her husband returned, Madame Defarge said nothing
to him, but when she coughed quietly he looked around the café
and saw the two strangers. Mr Lorry went forward to ask him a
question. Defarge listened quietly and then led Mr Lorry and Lucie
to a door at the back of the café.

3