 business, and unfit to cope with
such intricate and difficult matters. I do not possess the kind of information
necessary; I do not possess the kind of intelligence; I want guiding. There is
no man in this world on whom I could so rely for right guidance, as on you. Tell
me, how does this relapse come about? Is there danger of another? Could a
repetition of it be prevented? How should a repetition of it be treated? How
does it come about at all? What can I do for my friend? No man ever can have
been more desirous in his heart to serve a friend, than I am to serve mine, if I
knew how. But I don't know how to originate, in such a case. If your sagacity,
knowledge, and experience, could put me on the right track, I might be able to
do so much; unenlightened and undirected, I can do so little. Pray discuss it
with me; pray enable me to see it a little more clearly, and teach me how to be
a little more useful.«
    Doctor Manette sat meditating after these earnest words were spoken, and Mr.
Lorry did not press him.
    »I think it probable,« said the Doctor, breaking silence with an effort,
»that the relapse you have described, my dear friend, was not quite unforeseen
by its subject.«
    »Was it dreaded by him?« Mr. Lorry ventured to ask.
    »Very much.« He said it with an involuntary shudder.
    »You have no idea how such an apprehension weighs on the sufferer's mind,
and how difficult - how almost impossible - it is, for him to force himself to
utter a word upon the topic that oppresses him.«
    »Would he,« asked Mr. Lorry, »be sensibly relieved if he could prevail upon
himself to impart that secret brooding to any one, when it is on him?«
    »I think so. But it is, as I have told you, next to impossible. I even
believe it - in some cases - to be quite impossible.«
    »Now,« said Mr. Lorry, gently laying his hand on the Doctor's arm again,
after a short silence on both sides, »to what would you refer this attack?«
    »I believe,« returned Doctor Manette, »that there had been a strong and
extraordinary revival of the train of thought and remembrance that was the first
cause of the malady. Some intense associations of a most distressing nature were
vividly recalled
