登陆注册
3554300000014

第14章 BOOK THE FIRST:RECALLED TO LIFE(14)

'I must bear it,if you let it in.'(Laying the palest shadow of a stress upon the second word.)The opened half-door was opened a little further,and secured at that angle for the time. A broad ray of light fell into the garret,and showed the workman with an unfinished shoe upon his lap,pausing in his labour.His few common tools and various scraps of leather were at his feet and on his bench.He had a white beard,raggedly cut,but not very long,a hollow face,and exceedingly bright eyes.The hollowness and thinness of his face would have caused them to look large,under his yet dark eyebrows and his confused white hair,though they had been really otherwise;but,they were naturally large,and looked unnaturally so.His yellow rags of shirt lay open at the throat,and showed his body to be withered and worn.He,and his old canvas frock,and his loose stockings,and all his poor tatters of clothes,had,in a long seclusion from direct light and air,faded down to such a dull uniformity of parchment-yellow,that it would have been hard to say which was which.

He had put up a hand between his eyes and the light,and the very bones of it seemed transparent. So he sat,with a steadfastly vacant gaze,pausing in his work.He never looked at the figurebefore him,without first looking down on this side of himself,then on that,as if he had lost the habit of associating place with sound;he never spoke,without first wandering in this manner,and forgetting to speak.

'Are you going to finish that pair of shoes today?'asked Defarge,motioning to Mr. Lorry to come forward.

'What did you say?'

'Do you mean to finish that pair of shoes today?'

'I can't say that I mean to. I suppose so.I don't know.'

But,the question reminded him of his work,and he bent over it again.

Mr. Lorry came silently forward,leaving the daughter by the door.When he had stood,for a minute or two,by the side of Defarge,the shoemaker looked up.He showed no surprise at seeing another figure,but the unsteady fingers of one of his hands strayed to his lips as he looked at it(his lips and his nails were of the same pale lead-colour),and then the hand dropped to his work,and he once more bent over the shoe.The look and the action had occupied but an instant.

'You have a visitor,you see,'said Monsieur Defarge.

'What did you say?'

'Here is a visitor.'

The shoemaker looked up as before,but without removing a hand from his work.

'Come!'said Defarge.'Here is monsieur,who knows a well-made shoe when he sees one. Show him that shoe you are working at.Take it,monsieur.'

Mr. Lorry took it in his hand.

'Tell monsieur what kind of shoe it is,and the maker's name.'There was a longer pause than usual,before the shoemaker replied:'I forget what it was you asked me. What did you say?'

'I said,couldn't you describe the kind of shoe,for monsieur's information?'

'It is a lady's shoe. It is a young lady's walking-shoe.It is in the present mode.I never saw the mode.I have had a pattern in my hand.'He glanced at the shoe with some little passing touch of pride.

'And the maker's name?'said Defarge.

Now that he had no work to hold,he laid the knuckles of the right hand in the hollow of the left,and then the knuckles of the left hand in the hollow of the right,and then passed a hand across his bearded chin,and so on in regular changes,without a moment's intermission. The task of recalling him from the vacancy into which he always sank when he had spoken,was like recalling some very weak person from a swoon,or endeavouring,in the hope of some disclosure,to stay the spirit of a fast-dying man.

'Did you ask me for my name?'

'Assuredly I did.'

'One Hundred and Five,North Tower.'

'Is that all?'

'One Hundred and Five,North Tower.'

With a weary sound that was not a sigh,nor a groan,he bent to work again,until the silence was again broken.

'You are not a shoemaker by trade?'said Mr. Lorry,looking steadfastly at him.

His haggard eyes turned to Defarge,as if he would have transferred the question to him:but as no help came from that quarter,they turned back on the questioner when they had soughtthe ground.

'I am not a shoemaker by trade?No,I was not a shoemaker by trade. I—I learnt it here.I taught myself.I asked leave to—'He lapsed away,even for minutes,ringing those measured changes on his hands the whole time.His eyes came slowly back,at last,to the face from which they had wandered;when they rested on it,he started,and resumed,in the manner of a sleeper that moment awake,reverting to a subject of last night.

'I asked leave to teach myself,and I got it with much difficulty after a long while,and I have made shoes ever since.'

As he held out his hand for the shoe that had been taken from him,Mr. Lorry said,still looking steadfastly in his face:

'Monsieur Manette,do you remember nothing of me?'

The shoe dropped to the ground,and he sat looking fixedly at the questioner.

'Monsieur Manette';Mr. Lorry laid his hand upon Defarge's arm;'do you remember nothing of this man?Look at him.Look at me.Is there no old banker,no old business,no old servant,no old time,rising in your mind,Monsieur Manette?'

同类推荐
  • 括异志

    括异志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Hero Tales From American History

    Hero Tales From American History

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 麓堂诗话

    麓堂诗话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 脉象口诀歌

    脉象口诀歌

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 送苗七求职

    送苗七求职

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 宠妻之婚色可餐

    宠妻之婚色可餐

    如果没有亲身经历,苏沛柔从来都没有想过,如此狗血的事情居然会发生在自己身上。而且,还是如此突如其来,仿若一道狂肆的闪电,猛然戳破了她的人生,使她的人生发生了翻天覆地的变化。这样的变化,却不知是福是祸。是孽,抑或是缘。“爸,天黑了吗?为什么不开灯呀?我这是在哪儿?”这是苏沛柔醒来之后,看到四周黑漆漆的一片的第一反应。然而,最先回答她的,并不……
  • 仙始

    仙始

    楚天羽,出生在修神者达到巅峰的时代,不过他却不能够修炼,因为他的上丹田是封闭的,而修神者必须修炼上丹田,楚天羽注定了是废物。不过楚天羽并未被此打倒,而是凭借自己的聪明才智创造了一个新的流派,那就是修仙,既然我的上丹田不能修炼,那我的下丹田呢?那我的中丹田呢?故事由此开始。
  • 哈士奇

    哈士奇

    如果你对于玄幻的套路已经深恶痛看的吐了,不妨看一看这本不按套路出牌的咆哮体小说。内容如下:重生后总会有一番奇遇。重生之后,我靠,眼前的母狗是怎么回事,为何眼中有浓浓的母爱。我靠,我准备把这只母狗训斥走,张嘴却是一句:“汪呜~”…带你领略疯癫的疯掉的狂妄自大的人生和狗生。另,本书配合伏特加,龙舌兰,威士忌,白兰地,二锅头,五粮液等更佳~未成年人禁止饮酒。不定期诈尸流作者,完结后不定期更新日常。四五分的神作级评分,好评与差评一样多的小众风格小说,坚持读完的都是人才,因为作者本人就是一本读不完的书。
  • 痴醉青春

    痴醉青春

    白小沫,从校园到毕业,范有着诸多心事,这期间的无奈,还有第一次对乔宁的接受,外表冷静内心却胆小的白小沫,开始了她的故事。终归终究,她还是感受每一天有太阳的美好时光,每一天对自己的青春痴迷与感情的无奈。
  • 爱情如约而至

    爱情如约而至

    高考那年,被闺蜜更改了志愿被迫来到Z市。她文丝诺从来没想过,自己的人生会是这样凄凉,也从来没想过,大学到结婚爱了五年的男人竟然会出轨…孩子被小三的弟弟生生打掉,而那个男人却头也没回的选择了小三。为了报复,她答应做了同性恋者的妻子,可同样是得不到爱情的隐忍,是你…你会选择哪个?--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 周易参同契注

    周易参同契注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 强权沙皇:彼得大帝

    强权沙皇:彼得大帝

    本书主要内容包括:初掌政权、励精图治、锐意改革、领土扩张、强国之道、情感世界等。
  • 为你舍弃一切

    为你舍弃一切

    他毫不犹豫地抓住了异世少女的手——为了那个重要的人,舍弃一切又何妨!
  • 倾城帝妃帝君追妻路

    倾城帝妃帝君追妻路

    俊美妖孽的帝君轻轻地给某女上药。她21世纪,最强杀手,一朝穿越成了软弱可欺的废材四小姐,当她成为她整个世界唯她独尊,打白莲花虐渣男。他是风华绝代、运筹帷幄、冷血狠辣的神界帝君。当他遇到她,心狠手辣的他变成宠妻狂。
  • 透视地球

    透视地球

    主要从各个方面介绍地球的起源、运动、构造和特征,海陆变迁、构造运动、山川地貌等各类地质地理现象,人类对地球研究的认识方法、过程和成果。中外主要地质学派的代表人物及观点。《透视地球》语言通俗易懂,可以让读者对地球的各方面有一个全面的了解。