A Tale of Two Cities-CHAPTER 16 STILL KNITTING

STILL KNITTING,Madame Defarge and monsieur her husband returned amicably ¹ to the bosom ² of Saint Antoine, while a speck ³ in a blue cap toiled ⁴ through the darkness, and through the dust, and down the weary miles of avenue by the wayside, slowly tending towards that point of the compass where the chateau ⁵ of Monsieur the Marquis, now in his grave, listened to the whispering trees. Such ample leisure had the stone faces, now, for listening to the trees and to the fountain, that the few village scarecrows who, in their quest for herbs to eat and fragments of dead stick to burn, strayed within sight of the great stone courtyard and terrace staircase, had it borne in upon their starved fancy that the expression of the faces was altered. A rumour ⁶ just lived in the village—had a faint and bare existence there, as its people had—that when the knife struck home, the faces changed, from faces of pride to faces of anger and pain; also, that when that dangling ⁷ figure was hauled up forty feet above the fountain, they changed again, and bore a cruel look of being avenged ⁸, which they would henceforth bear for ever. In the stone face over the great window of the bed-chamber where the murder was done, two fine dints were pointed ¹⁰ out in the sculptured nose, which everybody recognised, and which nobody had seen of old; and on the scarce occasions when two or three ragged ¹¹ peasants emerged from the crowd to take a hurried peep at Monseigneur the Marquis petrified ¹², a skinny finger would not have pointed to it for a minute, before they all started away among the moss ¹³ and leaves, like the more fortunate hares who could find a living there.,Chateau and hut, stone face and dangling figure, the red stain on the stone floor, and the pure water in the village well— thousands of acres of land—a whole province of France—all France itself—lay under the night sky, concentrated into a faint hairbreadth line. So does a whole world, with all its greatnesses and littlenesses, lie in a twinkling star. And as mere ¹⁴ human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyse the manner of its composition, so, sublimer ¹⁵ intelligences may read in the feeble shining of this earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice ¹⁶ and virtue ¹⁷, of every responsible creature on it.,The Defarges, husband and wife, came lumbering ¹⁸ under the starlight, in their public vehicle, to that gate of Paris whereunto their journey naturally tended. There was the usual stoppage at the barrier guardhouse, and the usual lanterns came glancing forth ⁹ for the usual examination and inquiry ¹⁹. Monsieur Defarge alighted; knowing one or two of the soldiery there, and one of the police. The latter he was intimate with, and affectionately embraced.,When Saint Antoine had again enfolded the Defarges in his dusky wings, and they, having finally alighted near the Saint’s boundaries, were picking their way on foot through the black mud and offal of his streets, Madame Defarge spoke ²⁰ to her husband:,“Say then, my friend; what did Jacques of the police tell thee?”,“Eh well! ” said Madame Defarge, raising her eye brows with a cool business air. “It is necessary to register him. How do they call,that man?
”,“He is English.”,“So much the better. His name? ”,“Barsad,
” said Defarge, making it French by pronunciation. But he had been so careful to get it accurately ²¹, that he then spelt it with perfect correctness.,The couple parted amicably. 这对夫妻客气地分手了。 来自《简明英汉词典》,She drew a little book from her bosom.她从怀里取出一本小册子 。