A Tale of Two Cities-CHAPTER 5 THE WOOD-SAWYER

THE WOOD-SAWYER,One year and three months. During all that time Lucie was never sure, from hour to hour, but that the Guillotine would strike off her husband’s head next day. Every day, through the stony ¹ streets, the tumbrils now jolted ² heavily, filled with Condemned ³. Lovely girls; bright women, brown-haired, black-haired, and grey; youths; stalwart men and old; gentle born and peasant born; all red wine for La Guillotine, all daily brought into light from the dark cellars of the loathsome ⁴ prisons, and carried to her through the streets to slake ⁵ her devouring ⁶ thirst. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death;—the last, much the easiest to bestow ⁷, O Guillotine!,If the suddenness of her calamity ⁸, and the whirling wheels of the time, had stunned ⁹ the Doctor’s daughter into awaiting the result in idle despair, it would but have been with her as it was with many. But, from the hour when she had taken the white head to her fresh young bosom ¹⁰ in the garret of Saint Antoine, she had been true to her duties. She was truest to them in the season of trial, as all the quietly loyal and good will always be.,As soon as they were established in their new residence, and her father had entered on the routine of his avocations ¹¹, she arranged the little household as exactly as if her husband had been there. Everything had its appointed place and its appointed time. Little Lucie she taught, as regularly, as if they had all been united in their English home. The slight devices with which she cheated herself into the show of a belief that they would soon be reunited—the little preparations for his speedy return, the setting aside of his chair and his books—these, and the solemn prayer at night for one dear prisoner especially, among the many unhappy souls in prison and the shadow of death—were almost the only outspoken ¹³ reliefs of her heavy mind.,She did not greatly alter in appearance. The plain dark dresses, akin ¹⁵ to mourning dresses, which she and her child wore, were as neat and as well attended to as the brighter clothes of happy days. She lost her colour, and the old and intent expression was a constant, not an occasional, thing; otherwise, she remained very pretty and comely ¹⁶. Sometimes, at night on kissing her father, she would burst into the grief she had repressed all day, and would say that her sole reliance, under Heaven, was on him. He always resolutely ¹⁷ answered: “Nothing can happen to him without my knowledge, and I know that I can save him, Lucie. ”,They had not made the round of their changed life many weeks, when her father said to her, on coming home one evening:,“Oh show me the place, my father, and I will go there every day.”,From that time, in all weathers, she waited there two hours. As the clock struck two, she was there, and at four she turned resignedly away. When it was not too wet or inclement ¹⁹ for her child to be with her, they went together; at other times she was alone; but, she never missed a single day.,It was the dark and dirty corner of a small winding ²⁰ street. The hovel of a cutter of wood into lengths for burning was the only house at that end; all else was wall. On the third day of her being there, he noticed her.,“Good day, citizeness.
”,“Good day, citizen.”,He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历 。,The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。