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"My dear Charles," said Mr. Lorry, with cheerful confidence, "you

touch some of the reasons for my going: not for my staying away.

It is safe enough for me; nobody will care to interfere with an

old fellow of hard upon fourscore when there are so many people

there much better worth interfering with. As to its being a

disorganised city, if it were not a disorganised city there would

be no occasion to send somebody from our House here to our House

there, who knows the city and the business, of old, and is in

Tellson's confidence. As to the uncertain travelling, the long

journey, and the winter weather, if I were not prepared to submit

myself to a few inconveniences for the sake of Tellson's, after

all these years, who ought to be?"

"I wish I were going myself," said Charles Darnay, somewhat

restlessly, and like one thinking aloud.