介绍:
The next day, Mr Lorry was sitting in his hotel in Dover when a young lady arrived. She was pretty, with golden hair and blue eyes, and Mr Lorry remembered a small child, almost a baby. He had carried her in his arms when he came from Calais to Dover, from France to England, many years ago. Mr Lorry asked the young lady to sit down.
“Miss Manette,” he said. “I have a strange story to tell you, about one of the customers of Tellson’s Bank. That’s where I work.”
“Yes, but I don’t quite understand, Mr Lorry,” said the young lady. “I received a message from Tellson’s Bank, asking me to come here to meet you. I understood there was some news about my poor father’s money. He died so long ago — before I was born. What is this story you want to tell me?”
“About twenty years ago, Miss Manette, a French doctor married an English lady. They had a daughter, but just before she was born, her father disappeared. Nobody knew what had happened to him. Not long afterwards his unhappy wife died, and their daughter was brought back to England.”
“But this is like my father’s story, Mr Lorry. And wasn’t it you who brought me back to England?” said Miss Manette.
“Yes, that’s true, Miss Manette. Many years ago I brought you from France to England, and Tellson’s Bank has taken care of you since then. You were told that your father had died. But think, Miss Manette. Perhaps your father wasn’t dead. Perhaps he was in prison not because he had done something wrong but just because he had a powerful enemy — an enemy with the power to send him to prison and to keep him there, hidden and forgotten for 18 years!”
“Can it be true? Is it possible that my father is still alive?” Lucie Manette stared at Mr Lorry. Her face was white and her hands trembled. It will be his ghost — not him!
“No, Miss Manette,” said Mr Lorry gently. “He is alive, but he has changed very much. Even his name had been forgotten! And we must ask no questions about the past, no questions at all. It would be too dangerous. He has been taken to the house of an old servant in Paris, and we are going there to bring him back to life.”
