A Tale of Two Cities-CHAPTER 13 THE FELLOW OF NO DELICACY

THE FELLOW OF NO DELICACY¹,If Sydney Carton ever shone anywhere, he certainly never shone in the house of Doctor Manette. He had been there often, during a whole year, and had always been the same moody ² and morose ³ lounger there. When he cared to talk, he talked well; but, the cloud of caring for nothing which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him.,And yet he did care something for the streets that environed that house, and for the senseless stones that made their pavements. Many a night he vaguely ⁴ and unhappily wandered there, when wine had brought no transitory gladness to him; many a dreary ⁵ daybreak revealed his solitary ⁶ figure lingering there, and still lingering there when the first beams of the sun brought into strong relief, removed beauties in architecture in spires ⁷ of churches and lofty buildings, as perhaps the quiet time brought some sense of better things, else forgotten and unattainable, into his mind. Of late, the neglected bed in the Temple Court had known him more scantily ⁸ than ever; and often when he had thrown himself upon it no longer than a few minutes, he had got up again, and haunted that neighbourhood.,On a day in August, when Mr. Stryver (after notifying to his jackal that “he had thought better of that marrying matter ”) had carried his delicacy into Devonshire, and when the sight and scent ⁹ of flowers in the City streets had some waifs of goodness in them for the worst, of health for the sickliest, and of youth for the oldest, Sydney’s feet still trod those stones. From being irresolute ¹⁰ and purposeless, his feet became animated ¹¹ by an intention, and, in the working out of that intention, they took him to the Doctor’s door.,He was shown upstairs, and found Lucie at her work, alone. She had never been quite at her ease with him, and received him with some little embarrassment ¹² as he seated himself near her table. But, looking up at his face in the interchange of the first few common-places, she observed a change in it.,“I fear you are not well, Mr. Carton!”,“Is it not—forgive me; I had begun the question on my lips—a pity to live no better life?
”,“God knows it is a shame!”,“Then why not change it? ”,Looking gently at him again, she was surprised and saddened to see that there were tears in his eyes. There were tears in his voice too, as he answered:,“It is too late for that. I shall never be better than I am. I shall sink lower and be worse.
”,He sensed the delicacy of the situation.他感觉到了形势的微妙 。,He relapsed into a moody silence.他又重新陷于忧郁的沉默中。