"  Hold ! "  cried  Defarge,  reddening  a  little  as  if  he  felt
charged  with  cowardice ;  "  I  too,  my  dear,  will  stop  at
nothing."

"  Yes !  But  it  is  your  weakness  that  you  sometimes  need
to  see  your  victim  and  your  opportunity,  to  sustain  you.
Sustain  yourself  without  that.  ^Mien  the  time  comes,  let
loose  a  tiger  and  a  devil ;  but  wait  for  the  time  wth  the  tiger
and  the  devil  chained — not  shown — ^}'et  always  ready."

Madame  enforced  the  conclusion  of  this  piece  of  advice  by
striking  her  little  counter  with  her  chain  of  money  as  if  she
knocked  its  brains  out,  and  then  gathering  the  heavy  hand-
kerchief under  her  arm  in  a  serene  manner,  and  observing
that  it  was  time  to  go  to  bed.
Next  noontide  saw  the  admirable  woman  in  her  usual  place
in   the    wine-shop,  knitting   away   assiduously.      A   rose  lay


206  A  TALE  OF  TWO  CITIES.
beside  her,  and  if  she  now  and  then  glanced  at  the  flower,  it
was  with  no  infraction  of  her  usual  preoccupied  air.  There
were  a  few  customers,  drinking  or  not  drinking,  standing  or
seated,  sprinkled  about.  The  day  was  very  hot,  and  heaps
of  flies,  who  were  extending  their  inquisitive  and  adventurous
perquisitions  into  all  the  glutinous  little  glasses  near  madame,
fell  dead  at  the  bottom.  Their  decease  made  no  impression
on  the  other  flies  out  promenading,  who  looked  at  them  in
the  coolest  manner  (as  if  they  themselves  were  elephants,  or
something  as  far  removed),  until  they  met  the  same  fate.
Curious  to  consider  how  heedless  flies  are ! — ^perhaps  they
thought  as  much  at  Court  that  sunny  summer  day.
