A Tale of Two Cities Volume II, Chapter Twelve – The Fellow of Delicacy Summary

Mr. Stryver’s decided to bestow his magnanimous offer on Lucie.
We want to vomit just thinking of it.
He offers to take her out – twice.
Unaccountably, she refuses.
Not to worry, though. Stryver’s sure that he’s going to win her over.
He’s on his way to Soho to visit Doctor Manette (and to have a little word with Lucie), when he happens to walk by Tellson’s.
Since he knows that Mr. Lorry is a good friend of the Manettes, he drops by to share the good news.
Mr. Lorry doesn’t really like the fact that Mr. Stryver is too loud and too brazen to fit in well at Tellson’s.
In fact, the guy sort of sticks out like a sore thumb.
Mr. Lorry tries to get Stryver to tone it down a bit, but Stryver doesn’t seem to get the message.
Glibly unaware of how arrogant he sounds, Stryver tells Mr. Lorry that he plans to marry Lucie.
Mr. Lorry’s upset.
He knows exactly what the Manettes think of Stryver.
Unsurprisingly, they don’t think too much of him.
He gently tries to break this to Stryver.
Stryver’s not the brightest kid in class. He keeps telling Mr. Lorry how perfect a suitor he is.
After all, he’s a prosperous lawyer. He’s respectable and even well-off.
Who wouldn’t love him?
In fact, after telling Mr. Lorry all about himself, Stryver’s pretty sure that he should march right over to the Manettes and propose.
Mr. Lorry disagrees.
He’s fairly certain that the whole thing will turn out…well, it won’t be pretty.
Stryver can’t understand why this would be the case.
After a bit of heated conversation, Mr. Lorry manages to get Stryver to agree to postpone proposing to Lucie right away.
He tries to warn Stryver that Lucie might not think that Stryver is the amazing man that Stryver thinks he is.
Instead, Mr. Lorry offers to head over to the Manette house to test the waters for Stryver.
He’s pretty sure that he knows what the answer will be, but he wants to save Stryver (and Lucie) from the embarrassment of a proposal.
Stryver agrees to wait for a day until Mr. Lorry returns.
After all, he follows Carton’s lead on everything else. Why wouldn’t he follow Mr. Lorry’s lead on this?
That’s what Mr. Lorry’s banking on.
He heads over to the Manette house immediately.
Mr. Stryver stretches out on the couch in Mr. Lorry’s office and waits for him to return with an answer.

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