- We flash to Paris: in front of a wine-shop, a great big ol’ barrel of wine has fallen and broken open.
- It’s like the entire street won the lottery.
- Everyone dives into the road, heedless of the dirt or of traffic.
- They soak up wine with buckets and glasses and their hands and their shirts.
- Everything quickly becomes bright red.
- Foreshadowing, anyone? Well, yes. Yes, it is. As our narrator intones, this red will all too soon be replaced by the red of blood flowing in the streets.
- In Saint Antoine, the district where the store is, everyone’s hands will soon become stained with blood, too.
- How’s that for a nifty prediction?
- Once the wine is all sopped up, however, the absolute poverty of the place is recognizable again.
- People are hungry; shops are barely open; children are thin and undernourished.
- The owner of the wine-shop, surveying the street, shrugs his shoulders.
- After all, he didn’t spill the wine. It’s the merchant who’ll have to bear the loss of the casket.
- Our narrator takes a second to look closely at Defarge.
- Since he does, we will, too. Defarge is a bull-necked, barrel-chested sort of guy. He’s not exactly the type you’d like to meet in a dark alley.
- Come to think of it, he’s not the sort of guy that you’d want to oppose at all.
- Defarge walks into his store, where his wife sits knitting.
- She’s strong and as steadfast as he seems to be. She sure doesn’t stop knitting, for one thing.
- She coughs and rolls her eyes.
- Defarge seems to know what she means. Apparently they have a secret language worked out.
- He turns and looks at the old man and young woman who have seated themselves in the corner.
- Any guesses as to who they are?
- Defarge pretends not to notice them.
- He starts up a conversation with other customers. Strangely enough, all of their names seem to be Jacques.
- Either everyone’s mothers got together and decided to make the city identical, or something fishy is going on...
- After some conversation with the Jacqueses, Defarge tells them that the room they all wanted to see is out back.
- The three men all troop out to the back of the shop.
- Turning to the old man (Mr. Lorry, in case you missed it), Defarge offers to lead them up to the doctor’s room.
- On the way, Mr. Lorry asks if the doctor has changed much.
- Defarge answers in one word, "Changed!"
- Apparently he’s not really a man of words. He does hit the walls pretty expressively, though.
- Mr. Lorry seems to get his meaning. He gets more and more worried as they ascend the staircase in the back of the shop.
- They go up flights and flights of stairs. It’s dark and dingy and rather awful.
- Mr. Lorry asks why Defarge has to keep the doctor under lock and key. It seems rather cruel after his imprisonment.
- Defarge explains that the doctor has become so accustomed to the sound of a key turning in a lock that he can no longer exist without knowing that he’s under lock and key.
- Convinced that the doctor might harm himself if he’s not kept guarded, Defarge has locked him into his room.
- As they reach the top of the stairs, they run into Jacques one, two, and three.
- Apparently the "room" that they were planning to see was also the doctor’s room.
- Defarge pushes them out of the way as Lucie looks on, astounded.
- When they enter the room, Mr. Lorry turns to Lucie, his eyes wet.
- After all, he reminds her, it’s only business.
- Lucie, scared to meet the man inside, hesitates at the doorframe.
- Mr. Lorry sees her fear and helps her through the door.
- In the darkness that blankets the room, they can just barely see the figure of a man: he’s sitting at a very low bench, making shoes.