Sayfa 430 / 896

In the evening, at which season of all others Saint Antoine

turned himself inside out, and sat on door-steps and

window-ledges, and came to the corners of vile streets and

courts, for a breath of air, Madame Defarge with her work in her

hand was accustomed to pass from place to place and from group to

group: a Missionary--there were many like her--such as the world

will do well never to breed again. All the women knitted. They

knitted worthless things; but, the mechanical work was a

mechanical substitute for eating and drinking; the hands moved

for the jaws and the digestive apparatus: if the bony fingers had

been still, the stomachs would have been more famine-pinched.

But, as the fingers went, the eyes went, and the thoughts. And as

Madame Defarge moved on from group to group, all three went

quicker and fiercer among every little knot of women that she had

spoken with, and left behind.