Volume II, Chapter Ten – Two Promises

Back in England, Charles Darnay is making a decent living as a French tutor.  He’s also madly in love with Lucie. That’s what’s top on his mind as he heads over to Soho to the Manette’s house. The doctor’s life has continued to improve;h e hasn’t relapsed into depression or memory loss in a long time.

Charles arrives to declare his love for Lucie…to Dr. Manette.  Explaining that he understands how important Lucie is in Doctor Manette’s life, Charles says that he’ll never do anything that would jeopardize their relationship. In fact, if he married Lucie, he’d want to move in with them. That way, their house would be disrupted as little as possible.

Doctor Manette asks if Charles wants him to say anything to Lucie about this conversation. Charles immediately refuses. He knows how much Doctor Manette’s opinion matters to Lucie.  If he told her to think about Charles, she’d marry him – without thinking about whether or not she loved him. Charles doesn’t want this. 

What he does ask, however, is that Doctor Manette will agree to tell Lucie of this conversation if she comes to her father to talk about Charles. In the interests of full disclosure, Charles also wants to tell Doctor Manette about his past…in France. Doctor Manette seems startled. He immediately shuts Charles down. He doesn’t want to know about Charles’ history.

OK, OK: if Lucie and Charles get married, then Charles can tell him about his past. But that’s a big if. A few hours later, Lucie returns and Miss Pross meets her at the door. Pross is frantic. Dr. Manette has been up in his room, pacing the way that he used to. And he’s been working at making shoes again. Lucie runs upstairs to her father.