Pagina 295 di 896

More months, to the number of twelve, had come and gone, and Mr.

Charles Darnay was established in England as a higher teacher of

the French language who was conversant with French literature. In

this age, he would have been a Professor; in that age, he was a

Tutor. He read with young men who could find any leisure and

interest for the study of a living tongue spoken all over the

world, and he cultivated a taste for its stores of knowledge and

fancy. He could write of them, besides, in sound English, and

render them into sound English. Such masters were not at that

time easily found; Princes that had been, and Kings that were to

be, were not yet of the Teacher class, and no ruined nobility had

dropped out of Tellson's ledgers, to turn cooks and carpenters.

As a tutor, whose attainments made the student's way unusually

pleasant and profitable, and as an elegant translator who brought

something to his work besides mere dictionary knowledge, young

Mr.