Page 870 of 896

Afraid, in her extreme perturbation, of the loneliness of the

deserted rooms, and of half-imagined faces peeping from behind

every open door in them, Miss Pross got a basin of cold water and

began laving her eyes, which were swollen and red. Haunted by her

feverish apprehensions, she could not bear to have her sight

obscured for a minute at a time by the dripping water, but

constantly paused and looked round to see that there was no one

watching her. In one of those pauses she recoiled and cried out,

for she saw a figure standing in the room.

The basin fell to the ground broken, and the water flowed to the

feet of Madame Defarge. By strange stern ways, and through much

staining blood, those feet had come to meet that water.

Madame Defarge looked coldly at her, and said, "The wife of

Evremonde; where is she?"