Pagina 479 van 896

"Fashion of speech again! But, Mr. Darnay, oblivion is not so

easy to me, as you represent it to be to you. I have by no means

forgotten it, and a light answer does not help me to forget it."

"If it was a light answer," returned Darnay, "I beg your

forgiveness for it. I had no other object than to turn a slight

thing, which, to my surprise, seems to trouble you too much,

aside. I declare to you, on the faith of a gentleman, that I have

long dismissed it from my mind. Good Heaven, what was there to

dismiss! Have I had nothing more important to remember, in the

great service you rendered me that day?"

"As to the great service," said Carton, "I am bound to avow to

you, when you speak of it in that way, that it was mere

professional claptrap, I don't know that I cared what became of

you, when I rendered it.--Mind! I say when I rendered it; I am

speaking of the past."

"You make light of the obligation," returned Darnay, "but I will

not quarrel with your light answer."