Pagina 305 di 896

"But, do not believe," said Darnay, upon whose ear the mournful

voice struck with a reproachful sound, "that if my fortune were

so cast as that, being one day so happy as to make her my wife, I

must at any time put any separation between her and you, I could

or would breathe a word of what I now say. Besides that I should

know it to be hopeless, I should know it to be a baseness. If I

had any such possibility, even at a remote distance of years,

harboured in my thoughts, and hidden in my heart--if it ever had

been there--if it ever could be there--I could not now touch this

honoured hand."

He laid his own upon it as he spoke.