`You speak so feelingly and so manfully, Charles Darnay, that I thank you with all my heart, and will open all my heart--or nearly so. Have you any reason to believe that Lucie loves you?'

`Is it the immediate object of this confidence, that you may at once ascertain that, with my knowledge?'

`Not even so. I might not have the hopefulness to do it for weeks; I might (mistaken or not mistaken) have that hopefulness to-morrow.

`Do you seek any guidance from me?'

`I ask none, sir. But I have thought it possible that you might have it in your power, if you should deem it right, to give me some.'

`Do you seek any promise from me?'

`I well understand that, without you, I could have no hope. I well understand that, even if Miss Manette held me at this moment in her innocent heart--do not think I have the presumption to assume so much--I could retain no place in it against her love for her father.'

If that be so, do you sec what, on the other hand, is involved in it?'