* * * there 's a line of dickens ' in tale of two cities she thinks about a room so dark and miserable and gloomy that the candlelight seems buried in the wood of the walls and the table she does n't recall it exactly but the image has been stuck in her head since she first read the book when she was a girl she used to close her eyes and imagine flickering lights deep beneath hard surfaces lights dim lights that could not be extinguished could not be snuffed out .