A Tale of Two Cities Page #6

come to my wedding.

Why, Sydney, why didn't you

come to the wedding?

Pleasant ceremonies, weddings.

You know, Sydney, come to think of it,

you ought to get married.

Find yourself someone

to take care of you...

...some respectable woman

with a little property.

Landlady, lodging-house keeper.

Marry her against a rainy day.

Oh, must I spend my life listening to that

eternal blithering, pompous voice of yours?

Drives me mad.

You certainly are a funny fellow.

Never know how to take you.

Suggest marriage to you, and you fly up.

If you'd only seen

the joy in Lucie's eyes...

Why should that surprise me?

Why shouldn't she be happy?

Why shouldn't she be?

You are destined for more, Gaspard,

than revenge for the murder of your child.

You may light a spark

that will kindle all France.

I go.

He goes.

- "Henri Dupont, 42 francs, quit rental. "

- Not enough, Gabelle.

With what I get from these peasants,

I can hardly afford to pay my perfume bills.

- What about Roulet? Has he paid his rent?

- No, Your Excellency, nor will he.

Roulet died last week.

Now, that was impertinent of him.

He died with his rent unpaid.

- Oh, what did he die of?

- Hunger.

Hunger is an indulgence

with these peasants...

...as gout is with us.

It is an indulgence they would gladly

dispense with, Monseigneur.

Oh, I keep forgetting, Gabelle. You're a...

You're a humanitarian, aren't you?

You think that one person

is as good as another.

A naive notion,

so contradicted by the facts.

But speaking of...

Speaking of humanitarians...

...what has become of your disciple,

my nephew...

...in the year since he left

my tyrannical roof?

- Do you hear from him, Gabelle?

- Oh, yes. He is very happy.

He has taken a post at Tellson's Bank.

Frightfully bourgeois.

If it weren't that my sister, Charles'

mother, were quite beyond reproach...

...I should suspect that Charles

had tainted blood somewhere.

His conduct is so strange.

It's quite mystifying.

What was that, Gabelle?

What, Your Excellency?

I thought I saw somebody

at the window. Go and see.

Certainly.

There was nothing, Monseigneur.

Good night.

Gentlemen. Monsieur Gabelle.

Your forgiveness, gentlemen.

I'm certain you wouldn't have me

put promptness before gallantry.

It's of no consequence.

Believe me, no consequence.

Monsieur Gabelle here has been

trying to frighten us...

...with hobgoblins, werewolves

and mythical revolutionists.

Proceed, Monsieur Gabelle.

You may laugh, gentlemen,

but revolution is in the air.

Yet there is still time to remove

the cause of this unrest.

All the people ask is justice.

Only the Jacquerie, the extremists...

...are spreading the doctrine

of violence and bloodshed.

And what do you suggest, Gabelle?

That we double the police force?

Double the police? No.

Give the people bread.

Reduce their taxes.

Oh, I... I beseech you,

gentlemen, correct your errors

or the flood will come...

...a flood that may sweep us all

away forever.

His terror is genuine, gentlemen,

even if his philosophy is not.

Remember your own terror five years ago

when my master met his death?

And remember also, gentlemen, that the

Jacques who killed him is still at liberty.

Enough of this, Gabelle.

I have a new agent in Paris...

...a smart Englishman,

who will ferret out this murderer.

Our gracious king also has seen

the necessity for stronger measures.

He has brought German hussars

and Swiss infantry into Paris...

...to give your Jacques' a good drubbing,

Monsieur Gabelle.

Mercenaries to fight Frenchmen?

More delicate than to slaughter them

ourselves, don't you think?

Shall we rejoin the ladies, gentlemen?

How I loathe intellectuals

like this fellow, peasants who read.

I think he's right about the peasants.

How many thousands of these

foreign soldiers are they bringing in?

It doesn't matter how many.

It will do them no good.

It'll do them no good.

The starving people of Paris

might wait a long time...

...before rising up

to fight French soldiers.

But against hired foreign troops...

...any day, any hour.

- Any minute.

Want this wood in the loft?

Aristo spy. Used to be with Evremonde.

Name is Barsad.

Good day.

Cognac, the very best.

Never mind the cost.

These foreign soldiers are gonna fi...

They march well, don't they?

Very well.

You knit with great skill, madam.

What sort of things do you make?

Everything, mostly shrouds.

Shrouds?

- Business seems bad.

- Business is very bad.

People are so poor.

The unfortunate, miserable people.

And so oppressed too, as you say.

As you say.

Pardon me.

Certainly it was I who said so...

...but of course, naturally you think so.

- I think?

All we think here is how to live.

Good health, Jacques.

My name is Ernest De Farge.

De Farge?

Didn't you used to work for Dr. Manette?

- Yes.

- You know, I met him in England.

He has a charming daughter.

Little grandchild now too.

- Grandchild?

- Oh, yes.

His daughter married Charles Darnay.

You must remember him.

He's the nephew

of the Marquis St. Evremonde.

You must have known the marquis.

No. Why should I?

Well, when the marquis was killed

some years ago...

...his death was applauded

in this neighborhood.

You remember that, Jacques?

You make a mistake

when you call my husband Jacques.

His name is Ernest.

I don't want to make

a mistake in your name.

Are there two Ds in Barsad?

I don't believe it.

It can't be true...

...what he said of Mademoiselle Manette.

- No.

If he has said it, it's probably false...

...but it may be true.

- No, no, it's not true.

If it is, I hope for her sake that destiny

will keep her husband out of France.

Her husband's destiny will lead him

to the end that is to end him.

- That is to end him.

- I can't understand the doctor...

...permitting such a marriage.

- Or forgetting what the Evremondes did.

The doctor may forget,

and the doctor may forgive, but I don't.

We don't.

I don't believe there will be

a terror in France.

I count on the people's sanity

and good temper.

Well, the trouble is,

the aristocrats weren't firm enough.

They should hang hoodlums and that's all

the revolution there will be.

That's the kind of talk that cost us

the American colonies.

No comparison at all that I can see.

None. We lost the colonies because they fell

under the spell of that upstart Washington.

Well, the time may come

when the upstart Washington...

...will be a better remembered

Englishman than George III.

Oh, stuff and nonsense.

You businessmen never read anything

but your ledgers. You're badly informed.

- Oh, bless my soul.

- And as for the French aristocrats...

...they're so blind they can't see

the lightning in front of their eyes.

You mustn't make the mistake of thinking

that all aristocrats are alike.

- They differ as other classes do.

- I agree.

We of the younger generation

of Tellson's Bank...

...have been studying

the French situation closely.

- And we have come to the conclusion...

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes