双城记 Book1-4b The Preparation
But, perhaps theconfidential bachelor clerks in Tellson's Bank wereprincipally occupied with the cares of other people; andperhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, comeeasily off and on.
Completing his resemblance to a man who was sitting for hisportrait, Mr. Lorry dropped off to sleep. The arrival of hisbreakfast roused him, and he said to the drawer, as he movedhis chair to it:
`I wish accommodation prepared for a young lady who may comehere at any time to-day. She may ask for Mr. Jarvis Lorry, orshe may only ask for a gentleman from Tellson's Bank. Pleaseto let me know.
`Yes, sir. Tellson's Bank in London, sir?'
`Yes.'
`Yes, sir. We have often times the honour to entertain yourgentlemen in their travelling backwards and forwards betwixtLondon and Paris, sir. A vast deal of travelling, sir, inTellson and Company's House.'
`Yes. We are quite a French House, as well as an Englishone.'
`Yes, sir. Not much in the habit of such travelling your-self, I think, sir?'
`Not of late years. It is fifteen years since we--since I--came last from France.'
`Indeed, sir? That was before my time here, sir. Before ourpeople's time here, sir. The George was in other hands at thattime, sir.'
`I believe so.'
`But I would hold a pretty wager, sir, that a House likeTellson and Company was flourishing, a matter of fifty, not tospeak of fifteen years ago?'
`You might treble that, and say a hundred and fifty, yet notbe far from the truth.'
`Indeed, sir!'
Rounding his mouth and both his eyes, as he stepped backwardfrom the table, the waiter shifted his napkin from his-rightarm to his left, dropped into a comfortable attitude, andstood surveying the guest while he ate and drank, as from anobservatory or watch-tower. According to the immemorial usageof waiters in all ages.
When Mr. Lorry had finished his breakfast, he went out for astroll on the beach. The little narrow, crooked town of Doverhid itself away from the beach, and ran its head into thechalk cliffs, like a marine ostrich. The beach was a desert ofheaps of sea and stones tumbling wildly about, and the sea didwhat it liked, and what it liked was destruction. It thunderedat the town, and thundered at the cliffs, and brought thecoast down, madly. The air among the houses was of so strong apiscatory flavour that one might have supposed sick fish wentup to be dipped in it, as sick people went down to be dippedin the sea. A little fishing was done in the port, and aquantity of strolling about by night, and looking seaward:
particularly at those times when the tide made, and was nearflood. Small tradesmen, who did no business whatever,sometimes unaccountably realised large fortunes, and it wasremarkable that nobody in the neighbourhood could endure alamplighter.
