A Tale of Two Cities-CHAPTER 2 THE GRINDSTONE

THE GRINDSTONE,Tellson’s Bank, established in the Saint Germain Quarter of Paris, was in a wing of a large house, approached by a court-yard and shut off from the street by a high wall and a strong gate. The house belonged to a great nobleman who had lived in it until he made a flight from the troubles, in his own cook’s dress, and got across the borders. A mere ¹ beast of the chase flying from hunters, he was still in his metempsychosis no other than the same Monseigneur, the preparation of whose chocolate for whose lips had once occupied three strong men besides the cook in question.,Monseigneur gone, and the three strong men absolving ² themselves from the sin of having drawn ³ his high wages, by being more than ready and willing to cut his throat on the altar of the drawing Republic One and Indivisible, of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, Monseigneur’s house had been first sequestrated, and then confiscated ⁴. For, all things move so fast, and decree following decree with that fierce precipitation, that now upon the third night of the autumn month of September, patriot ⁵ emissaries of the law were in possession of Monseigneur’s house, and had marked it with the tricolour, and were drinking brandy in its state apartments.,A place of business in London like Tellson’s place of business in Paris, would soon have driven the House out of its mind and into the Gazette. For, what would staid British responsibility and respectability have said to orange-trees in boxes in a Bank courtyard, and even to a Cupid over the counter? Yet such things were. Tellson’s had whitewashed ⁶ the Cupid, but he was still to be seen on the ceiling, in the coolest linen ⁷, aiming (as he very often does) at money from morning to night. Bankruptcy ⁸ must inevitably ⁹ have come of this young Pagan, in Lombard-street, London, and also of a curtained alcove ¹⁰ in the rear of the immortal ¹¹ boy, and also of a looking-glass let into the wall, and also of clerks not at all old, who danced in public on the slightest provocation ¹². Yet, a French Tellson’s could get on with these things exceedingly well, and, as long as the times held together, no man had taken fright at them, and drawn out his money.,What money would be drawn out of Tellson’s henceforth, and what would lie there, lost and forgotten; what plate and jewels would tarnish ¹³ in Tellson’s hiding-places, while the depositors rusted ¹⁴ in prisons, and when they should have violently perished; how many accounts with Tellson’s never to be balanced in this world, must be carried over into the next; no man could have said, that night, any more than Mr. Jarvis Lorry could, though he thought heavily of these questions. He sat by a newly-lighted wood fire (the blighted ¹⁵ and unfruitful year was prematurely ¹⁶ cold), and on his honest and courageous ¹⁷ face there was a deeper shade than the pendent lamp could throw, or any object in the room distortedly reflect—a shade of horror.,He occupied rooms in the Bank, in his fidelity ¹⁸ to the House of which he had grown to be a part, like strong root-ivy. It chanced that they derived ¹⁹ a kind of security from the patriotic ²⁰ occupation of the main building, but the true-hearted old gentleman never calculated about that. All such circumstances were indifferent to him, so that he did his duty. On the opposite side of the courtyard, under a colonnade ²¹, was extensive standing ²² for carriages—where, indeed, some carriages of Monseigneur yet stood. Against two of the pillars were fastened two great flaring ²³ flambeaux, and in the light of these, standing to in the open air, was a large grindstone: a roughly mounted thing which appeared to have hurriedly been brought there from some neighbouring smithy, or other workshop. Rising and looking out of the window at these harmless objects, Mr. Lorry shivered, and retired ²⁴ to his seat by the fire. He had opened, not only the glass window, but the lattice blind outside it, and he had closed both again, and he shivered through his frame.,“Thank God,
” said Mr. Lorry, clasping his hands, “that no one near and dear to me is in this dreadful town tonight. May He have mercy on all who are in danger!”,Soon afterwards the bell at the great gate sounded, and he thought, “They have come back! ” and sat listening. But, there was no loud irruption into the courtyard, as he had expected, and he heard the gate clash again, and all was quiet.,The nervousness and dread ²⁶ that were upon him inspired that vague uneasiness respecting the Bank, which a great change would naturally awaken ²⁷, with such feelings roused. It was well guarded, and he got up to go among the trusty people watching it, when his door suddenly opened, and two figures rushed in, at sight of which he fell back in amazement ²⁸.,Lucie and her father! Lucie with her arms stretched out to him, and with that old look of earnestness so concentrated and intensified ²⁹, that it seemed as though it had been stamped upon her face expressly to give force and power to it in this one passage of her life.,“What is this?
” cried Mr. Lorry, breathless and confused. “What is the matter? Lucie! Manette! What has happened? What has brought you here? What is it?”,It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间
。,I'm not absolving myself from blame just because I was not playing. 我不是只是因为我没有参加比赛就把自己从责任中开脱出去。