Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities

Book the Third - The Track of a Storm 10. X. The Substance of the Shadow (continued)

"I turned her gently over, placed my hands upon her breast to calm her and keep her down, and looked into her face. Her eyes were dilated and wild, and she constantly uttered piercing shrieks, and repeated the words, `My husband, my father, and my brother!' and then counted up to twelve, and said, `Hush!' For an instant, and no more, she would pause to listen, and then the piercing shrieks would begin again, and she would repeat the cry, `My husband, my father, and my brother!' and would count up to twelve, and say, `Hush!' There was no variation in the order, or the manner. There was no cessation, but the regular moment's pause, in the utterance of these sounds.

"`How long,' I asked, `has this lasted?'

"To distinguish the brothers, I will call them the elder and the younger; by the elder, I mean him who exercised the most authority. It was the elder who replied, `Since about this hour last night.'

"`She has a husband, a father, and a brother?'

"`A brother.'

"`I do not address her brother?'

"He answered with great contempt, `No.'

"`She has some recent association with the number twelve?'

"The younger brother impatiently rejoined, `With twelve o'clock?'

"`See, gentlemen,' said I, still keeping my hands upon her breast, 'how useless I am, as you have brought me! If I had known what I was coming to see, I could have come provided. As it is, time must be lost. There are no medicines to be obtained in this lonely place.'

"The elder brother looked to the younger, who said haughtily, `There is a case of medicines here;' and brought it from a closet, and put it on the table.

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