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By Root 2895 0

extended great liberality to old customers who had fallen from their high estate. Again: those nobles who had seen the coming storm in time, and, anticipating plunder or confiscation, had made provident remittances to Tellson’s, were always to be heard of there by their needy brethren. To which it must be added that every new comer from France reported himself and his tidings at Tellson’s, almost as a matter of course. For such variety of reasons, Tellson’s was at that time, as to French intelligence, a kind of High Exchange; and this was so well known to the public, and the inquiries made there were in consequence so numerous, that Tellson’s sometimes wrote the latest news out in a line or so and posted it in the Bank windows, for all who ran through Temple Bar to read.

On a steaming, misty afternoon, Mr Lorry sat at his desk, and Charles Darnay stood leaning on it, talking with him in a low voice. The penitential den once set apart for interviews with the House, was now the news-Exchange, and was filled to overflowing. It was within half an hour or so of the time of closing.

‘But, although you are the youngest man that ever lived,’ said Charles Darnay, rather hesitating, ‘I must still suggest to you—’

‘I understand. That I am too old?’ said Mr Lorry.

‘Unsettled weather, a long journey, uncertain means of travelling, a disorganised country, a city that may not even be safe for you.’

‘My dear Charles,’ said Mr Lorry, with cheerful confidence, ‘you touch some of the reasons for my going: not for my staying away. It is safe enough for me; nobody will care to interfere with an old fellow of hard upon fourscore when there are so many people there much better worth interfering with. As to its being 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 afire 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