"but, do not believe," said darnay, upon whose ear the mournful voice struck with a reproachful sound, "that if my fortune were so cast as that, being one day so happy as to make her my wife, i must at any time put any separation between her and you, i could or would breathe a word of what i now say. besides that i should know it to be hopeless, i should know it to be a baseness. if i had any such possibility, even at a remote distance of years, harboured in my thoughts, and hidden in my heart if it ever had been there if it ever could be there i could not now touch this honoured hand."