A Tale of Two Cities Volume II, Chapter Seventeen – One Night Summary

London. The night before Lucie’s wedding.
Lucie sits by her father’s side underneath a tree in their yard.
She’s very, very happy. She worries, however, that her father will be made unhappy by her upcoming marriage.
Asking to be reassured that nothing will be changed by her marriage, she begs her father to tell her if he will be at all unhappy in the future.
Doctor Manette assures Lucie that he will be happier if she’s fully happy.
After all, he realizes that she’s devoted herself to him. He wouldn’t want her life to be spent completely in tending for an old man.
As he sits looking at the moon, Doctor Manette remembers the times that the moon was the only thing he could see from his prison window.
He tells Lucie that he used to look at the moon and dream of the child which he’d abandoned when he was sent to prison.
Imagining that she’d forgotten him completely, the doctor used to think that the child would grow up without any thought of him troubling her mind.
Lucie interrupts him. She’s troubled by the thought that he could imagine her to be uncaring.
Doctor Manette gently stops her.
At other times, he explains, he would imagine his daughter leading him out of his prison cell into the world.
This vision, he insisted, was a spectre.
Lucie struggles to understand all of this.
Continuing, the Doctor says that, at other times, he imagined his child with a full and happy life – one that he came into when he left prison.
That, Lucie recognizes, was his dream of her.
The next day, Lucie will get married.
No one is invited to the ceremony but Mr. Lorry. Miss Pross will be there, as well.
That night, Miss Pross, Lucie, and the doctor have a cheerful supper together.
After the doctor goes to bed, Lucie creeps into his room to check on him.
He’s sleeping soundly.
Relieved, she goes to sleep herself.

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