Dr Manette had continued in good health, and at the centre of that warm family circle was always Lucie -- a loving daughter, wife, mother, and a kind-hearted friend.
So, what she's doing is proclaiming to herself and the world that her compassion is so complete and godlike that she can even hearken to the voice of the serpent and bring that into the family circle.
Yet I do not call to mind that I was ever in my earlier youth the subject of remark in our social family circle, but some large-handed person took some such ophthalmic steps to patronize me.
In his first years of contact with strangers, the youth who has known only the mild life of the family circle is frightened by the cruelty, selfishness, jealousy, which he thinks he meets at every turn.