Page 228 of 896

The night was so very sultry, that although they sat with doors

and windows open, they were overpowered by heat. When the

tea-table was done with, they all moved to one of the windows,

and looked out into the heavy twilight. Lucie sat by her father;

Darnay sat beside her; Carton leaned against a window. The

curtains were long and white, and some of the thunder-gusts that

whirled into the corner, caught them up to the ceiling, and waved

them like spectral wings.

"The rain-drops are still falling, large, heavy, and few," said

Doctor Manette. "It comes slowly."

"It comes surely," said Carton.

They spoke low, as people watching and waiting mostly do; as

people in a dark room, watching and waiting for Lightning, always

do.

There was a great hurry in the streets of people speeding away to

get shelter before the storm broke; the wonderful corner for

echoes resounded with the echoes of footsteps coming and going,

yet not a footstep was there.