Повесть о двух городах / A Tale of Two Cities

Miss Pross’s fidelity of belief in Solomon (deducting a mere trifle for this slight mistake) was quite a serious matter with Mr. Lorry, and had its weight in his good opinion of her.

�As we happen to be alone for the moment, and are both people of business,’ he said, when they had got back to the drawing-room and had sat down there in friendly relations, �let me ask you – does the Doctor, in talking with Lucie, never refer to the shoemaking time, yet?’

�Never.’

�And yet keeps that bench and those tools beside him?’

�Ah!’ returned Miss Pross, shaking her head.

�Do you believe that he thinks of it much?’

�I do,’ said Miss Pross.

�Do you imagine – ’ Mr. Lorry had begun, when Miss Pross took him up short with:

�Never imagine anything. Have no imagination at all.’

�I stand corrected; do you suppose – you go so far as to suppose, sometimes?’

�Now and then,’ said Miss Pross.

�Do you suppose,’ Mr. Lorry went on, with a laughing twinkle in his bright eye, as it looked kindly at her, �that Doctor Manette has any theory of his own, preserved through all those years, relative to the cause of his being so oppressed; perhaps, even to the name of his oppressor?’

�I don’t suppose anything about it but what Ladybird tells me.’

�And that is?..’

�That she thinks he has.’

�Now don’t be angry at my asking all these questions; because I am a mere dull man of business, and you are a woman of business.

�Dull?’ Miss Pross inquired, with placidity.

Rather wishing his modest adjective away, Mr. Lorry replied, �No, no, no. Surely not. To return to business: – Is it not remarkable that Doctor Manette, unquestionably innocent of any crime as we are all well assured he is, should never touch upon that question? I will not say with me, though he had business relations with me many years ago, and we are now intimate; I will say with the fair daughter to whom he is so devotedly attached, and who is so devotedly attached to him? Believe me, Miss Pross, I don’t approach the topic with you, out of curiosity, but out of zealous interest.

�Well! To the best of my understanding, and bad’s the best, you’ll tell me,’ said Miss Pross, softened by the tone of the apology, �he is afraid of the whole subject.