Summary of Book II, Chapter 20: A Plea
Shortly after Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette return home as newlyweds, Sydney Carton appears at their door—the first person to offer congratulations. Though he remains unchanged in his slovenly habits and careless appearance, Darnay notices something new about him: a rough, understated air of fidelity that he has not seen before.
Carton draws Darnay aside and makes an earnest, halting request. He asks Darnay to forget a past drunken evening when he behaved badly, speaking both of liking and not liking Darnay. Darnay graciously dismisses the incident, insisting he long ago forgot it and reminding Carton of the far greater service he rendered at the treason trial. Carton, however, waves this away with painful honesty, admitting the legal defense was "mere professional claptrap" and that he did not particularly care what became of Darnay at the time.
Carton’s Request
Getting to his real purpose, Carton describes himself as a "dissolute dog" incapable of higher and better things. He asks only to be tolerated as a privileged visitor—an "useless" and "unornamental" piece of furniture permitted to come and go at odd times. He doubts he would visit more than four times a year, but knowing the permission existed would satisfy him. Darnay warmly agrees, and the two men shake hands and use each other’s surnames for the first time. Within a minute of parting, Carton resumes his old mask of indifference.
Lucie’s Compassion
That evening, Darnay mentions the conversation at dinner with Miss Pross, Doctor Manette, and Mr. Lorry, describing Carton casually as a problem of "carelessness and recklessness." He means no cruelty, but later, in their private rooms, he finds Lucie waiting with a troubled expression. She extracts a promise from him and then gently rebukes him: Carton deserves more consideration and respect than Darnay showed. She reveals that she has seen Carton’s hidden heart bleeding beneath his reckless exterior and believes him capable of "good things, gentle things, even magnanimous things," though she fears he may never be reclaimed.
Moved by her compassion, Darnay promises to always remember "how strong we are in our happiness, and how weak he is in his misery." The chapter closes with a haunting image: a forlorn wanderer pacing the dark streets who, had he overheard Lucie’s tender words and seen her husband kiss away her tears of pity, might have cried out, "God bless her for her sweet compassion!" This unnamed figure is unmistakably Carton himself, foreshadowing the enormous sacrifice he will eventually make for the Darnay family.