有声名著之双城记Book2 Chapter05

　　有声名著之双城记

       CHAPTER VThe Jackal

       THOSE were drinking days, and moot 1 men drank hard. So very great is theimprovement Time has brought about in such habits, that a moderate statementof the quantity of wine and punch which one man would swallow in the courseof a night, without any detriment 2 to his reputation as a perfect gentleman,would seem, in these days, a ridiculous exaggeration. The learned professionof the law was certainly not behind any other learned profession in itsBacchanalian Propensities 3; neither was Mr. Stryver, already fast shoulderinghis way to a large and lucrative 4 practice, behind his compeers in thisparticular, any more than in the drier parts of the legal race.

A favourite at the Old Bailey, and eke 5 at the Sessions, Mr. Stryver hadbegun cautiously to hew 6 away the lower staves of the ladder on which hemounted. Sessions and Old Bailey had now to summon their favourite,specially, to their longing 7 arms; and shouldering itself towards the visageof the Lord Chief Justice in the Court of King's Bench, the floridcountenance of Mr. Stryver might be daily seen, bursting out of the bed ofwigs, like a great sunflower pushing its way at the sun from among a rankgarden full of flaring 8 companions.

ad once been noted 9 at the Bar, that while Mr. Stryver was a glib 10 man, andan unscrupulous, and a ready, and a bold, he had not that faculty 11 ofextracting the essence from a heap of statements, which is among the moststriking and necessary of the advocate's accomplishments 12. But a remarkableimprovement came upon him as to this. The more business he got, the greaterhis power seemed to grow of getting at its pith and marrow 13; and however lateat night he sat carousing 14 with Sydney Carton, he always had his points athis fingers' ends in the morning.

Sydney Carton, idlest and most unpromising of men, was Stryver's greatally. What the two drank together, between Hilary Term and Michaelmas, mighthave floated a king's ship. Stryver never had a case in hand, anywhere, butCarton was there, with his hands in his pockets, staring at the ceiling ofthe court; they went the same Circuit, and even there they prolonged theirusual orgies late into the night, and Carton was rumoured 15 to be seen atbroad day, going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings 16, like adissipated cat. At last, it began to get about, among such as wereinterested in the matter, that although Sydney Carton would never be a lion,he was an amazingly good jackal, and that he rendered suit and service toStryver in that humble 17 capacity.

`Ten o'clock, sir,' said the man at the tavern 18, whom he had charged to wakehim--'ten o'clock, sir.'

`What's the matter?'

`Ten o'clock, sir.'

`What do you mean? Ten o'clock at night?'

`Yes, sir. Your honour told me to call you.'

`Oh! I remember. Very well, very well.'

After a few dull efforts to get to sleep again, which the man dexterouslycombated by stirring the fire continuously for five minutes, he got up,tossed his hat on, and walked out. He turned into the Temple, and, havingrevived himself by twice pacing the pavements of King's Bench-walk andPaper-buildings, turned into the Stryver chambers 20.

The Stryver clerk, who never assisted at these conferences, had gone home,and the Stryver principal opened the door. He had his slippers 21 on, and aloose bed-gown, and his throat was bare for his greater ease. He had thatrather wild, strained, seared marking about the eyes, which may be observedin all free livers of his class, from the portrait of Jeffries downward, andwhich can be traced, under various disguises of Art, through the portraitsof every Drinking Age.

`You are a little late, Memory,' said Stryver.

`About the usual time; it may be a quarter of an hour later.'

They went into a dingy 22 room lined with books and littered with papers,where there was a blazing fire. A kettle steamed upon the hob, and in themidst of the wreck 23 of papers a table shone, with plenty of wine upon it, andbrandy, and rum, and sugar, and lemons.

`You have had your bottle, I perceive, Sydney.'

`Two to-night, I think. I have been dining with the day's client; or seeinghim dine--it's all one!'

`That was a rare point, Sydney, that you brought to bear upon theidentification. How did you come by it? When did it strike you?'

`I thought he was rather a handsome fellow, and I thought I should havebeen much the same sort of fellow, if I had had any luck.'

Mr. Stryver laughed till he shook his precocious 24 paunch.

`You and your luck, Sydney! Get to work, get to work.' Sullenly 25 enough, thejackal loosened his dress, went into an adjoining room, and came back with alarge jug 26 of cold water, a basin, and a towel or two. Steeping the towels inthe water, and partially 27 wringing 28 them out, he folded them on his head in amanner hideous 29 to behold 30, sat down at the table, and said, `Now I am ready!'