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"I am sure of it. Charles Darnay, mysteries arise out of close love, as well as out of wide division; in the former case, they are subtle and delicate, and difficult to penetrate. My daughter Lucie is, in this one respect, such a mystery to me; I can make no guess at the state of her heart."

"May I ask, sir, if you think she is-" As he hesitated, her father supplied the rest.

"Is sought by any other suitor?"

"It is what I meant to say."

Her father considered a little before he answered:

"You have seen Mr. Carton here, yourself. Mr. Stryver is here too, occasionally. If it be at all, it can only be by one of these."

"Or both," said Darnay.

"I had not thought of both; I should not think either, likely. You want a promise from me. Tell me what it is."

"It is, that if Miss Manette should bring to you at any time, on her own part, such a confidence as I have ventured to lay before you, you will bear testimony to what I have said, and to your belief in it.

I hope you may be able to think so well of me, as to urge no influence against me.

I say nothing more of my stake in this; this is what I ask.

The condition on which I ask it, and which you have an undoubted right to require, I will observe immediately."

"I give the promise," said the Doctor, "without any condition.

I believe your object to be, purely and truthfully, as you have stated it.

I believe your intention is to perpetuate, and not to weaken, the ties between me and my other and far dearer self.

If she should ever tell me that you are essential to her perfect happiness, I will give her to you.

If there were-Charles Darnay, if there were-"

The young man had taken his hand gratefully; their hands were joined as the Doctor spoke:

"-any fancies, any reasons, any apprehensions, anything whatsoever, new or old, against the man she really loved-the direct responsibility thereof not lying on his head-they should all be obliterated for her sake.

She is everything to me; more to me than suffering, more to me than wrong, more to me-Well! This is idle talk."

So strange was the way in which he faded into silence, and so strange his fixed look when he had ceased to speak, that Darnay felt his own hand turn cold in the hand that slowly released and dropped it.

"You said something to me," said Doctor Manette, breaking into a smile. "What was it you said to me?"

He was at a loss how to answer, until he remembered having spoken of a condition. Relieved as his mind reverted to that, he answered:

"Your confidence in me ought to be returned with full confidence on my part. My present name, though but slightly changed from my mother's, is not, as you will remember, my own. I wish to tell you what that is, and why I am in England."

"Stop!" said the Doctor of Beauvais.

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