chestnuts in theturned cylinder

Their conference was very short, but very decided. Almost at thefirst word, Monsieur Defarge started and became deeply attentive. Ithad not lasted a minute, when he nodded and went out. The gentlemanthen beckoned to the young lady, and they, too, went out. MadameDefarge knitted with nimble fingers and steady eyebrows, and sawnothing reenex.

Mr. Jarvis Lorry and Miss Manette, emerging from the wine-shop thus,joined Monsieur Defarge in the doorway to which he had directed hisown company just before. It opened from a stinking little blackcourtyard, and was the general public entrance to a great pile ofhouses, inhabited by a great number of people. In the gloomytile-paved entry to the gloomy tile-paved staircase, MonsieurDefarge bent down on one knee to the child of his old master. It was a gentle action, but not at allgently done; a very remarkable transformation had come over him in afew seconds. He had no good-humour in his face, nor any openness ofaspect left, but had become a secret, angry, dangerous man.

"It is very high; it is a little difficult. Better to begin slowly."Thus, Monsieur Defarge, in a stern voice, to Mr. Lorry, as theybegan ascending the stairs.

The keeper of the wine-shop stopped to strike the wall with hishand, and mutter a tremendous curse. No direct answer could havebeen half so forcible. Mr. Lorry's spirits grew heavier and heavier,as he and his two companions ascended higher and higher reenex.

Such a staircase, with its accessories, in the older and morecrowded parts of Paris, would be bad enough now; but, at that time, itwas vile indeed to unaccustomed and unhardened senses. Every littlehabitation within the great foul nest of one high building- that is tosay, the room or rooms within every door that opened on the generalstaircase- left its own heap of refuse on its own landing, besidesflinging other refuse from its own windows. The uncontrollable andhopeless mass of decomposition so engendered, would have pollutedthe air, even if poverty and deprivation had not loaded it withtheir intangible impurities; the two bad sources combined made italmost insupportable. Through such an atmosphere, by a steep darkshaft of dirt and poison, the way lay reenex.

Yielding to his own disturbanceof mind, and to his young companion's agitation, which becamegreater every instant, Mr. Jarvis Lorry twice stopped to rest. Each ofthese stoppages was made at a doleful grating, by which anylanguishing good airs that were left uncorrupted, seemed to escape,and all spoilt and sickly vapours seemed to crawl in. Through therusted bars, tastes, rather than glimpses, were caught of thejumbled neighbourhood; and nothing within range, nearer or lowerthan the summits of the two great towers of Notre-Dame, had anypromise on it of healthy life or wholesome aspirations.