"I tell thee," said madame, extending her right hand, for emphasis,
"that although it is a long time on the road, it is on the road and
coming. I tell thee it never retreats, and never stops. I tell thee
it is always advancing. Look around and consider the lives of all the
world that we know, consider the faces of all the world that we know,
consider the rage and discontent to which the Jacquerie addresses itself
with more and more of certainty every hour. Can such things last?
Bah! I mock you."
"My brave wife," returned Defarge, standing before her with his head
a little bent, and his hands clasped at his back, like a docile and
attentive pupil before his catechist, "I do not question all this.
But it has lasted a long time, and it is possible--you know well,
my wife, it is possible--that it may not come, during our lives."
"Eh well! How then?" demanded madame, tying another knot, as if
there were another enemy strangled.
"Well!" said Defarge, with a half complaining and half apologetic shrug.
"We shall not see the triumph."
"We shall have helped it," returned madame, with her extended hand in
strong action.
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