The big girl approached and laid her hand in her father’s.
“Feel how cold I am,” said she.
“Bah!” replied the father, “I am much colder than that.”
The mother exclaimed impetuously:—
“You always have something better than any one else, so you do! even
bad things.”
“Down with you!” said the man.
The mother, being eyed after a certain fashion, held her tongue.
Silence reigned for a moment in the hovel. The elder girl was removing
the mud from the bottom of her mantle, with a careless air; her younger
sister continued to sob; the mother had taken the latter’s head between
her hands, and was covering it with kisses, whispering to her the
while:—
“My treasure, I entreat you, it is nothing of consequence, don’t cry,
you will anger your father.”
“No!” exclaimed the father, “quite the contrary! sob! sob! that’s
right.”
Then turning to the elder:—
“There now! He is not coming! What if he were not to come! I shall have
extinguished my fire, wrecked my chair, torn my shirt, and broken my
pane all for nothing.”
“And wounded the child!” murmured the mother.
“Do you know,” went on the father, “that it’s beastly cold in this
devil’s garret! What if that man should not come! Oh! See there, you!
He makes us wait! He says to himself: ‘Well! they will wait for me!
That’s what they’re there for.’ Oh! how I hate them, and with what joy,
jubilation, enthusiasm, and satisfaction I could strangle all those
rich folks! all those rich folks! These men who pretend to be
charitable, who put on airs, who go to mass, who make presents to the
priesthood, _preachy, preachy_, in their skullcaps, and who think
themselves above us, and who come for the purpose of humiliating us,
and to bring us ‘clothes,’ as they say! old duds that are not worth
four sous! And bread! That’s not what I want, pack of rascals that they
are, it’s money! Ah! money! Never! Because they say that we would go
off and drink it up, and that we are drunkards and idlers! And they!
What are they, then, and what have they been in their time! Thieves!
They never could have become rich otherwise! Oh! Society ought to be
grasped by the four corners of the cloth and tossed into the air, all
of it! It would all be smashed, very likely, but at least, no one would
have anything, and there would be that much gained! But what is that
blockhead of a benevolent gentleman doing? Will he come? Perhaps the
animal has forgotten the address! I’ll bet that that old beast—”
At that moment there came a light tap at the door, the man rushed to it
and opened it, exclaiming, amid profound bows and smiles of adoration:—
“Enter, sir! Deign to enter, most respected benefactor, and your
charming young lady, also.”
A man of ripe age and a young girl made their appearance on the
threshold of the attic.
Marius had not quitted his post. His feelings for the moment surpassed
the powers of the human tongue.
It was She!
Whoever has loved knows all the radiant meanings contained in those
three letters of that word: She.
It was certainly she. Marius could hardly distinguish her through the
luminous vapor which had suddenly spread before his eyes. It was that
sweet, absent being, that star which had beamed upon him for six
months; it was those eyes, that brow, that mouth, that lovely vanished
face which had created night by its departure. The vision had been
eclipsed, now it reappeared.
It reappeared in that gloom, in that garret, in that misshapen attic,
in all that horror.
Marius shuddered in dismay. What! It was she! The palpitations of his
heart troubled his sight. He felt that he was on the brink of bursting
into tears! What! He beheld her again at last, after having sought her
so long! It seemed to him that he had lost his soul, and that he had
just found it again.
She was the same as ever, only a little pale; her delicate face was
framed in a bonnet of violet velvet, her figure was concealed beneath a
pelisse of black satin. Beneath her long dress, a glimpse could be
caught of her tiny foot shod in a silken boot.
She was still accompanied by M. Leblanc.
She had taken a few steps into the room, and had deposited a tolerably
bulky parcel on the table.
The eldest Jondrette girl had retired behind the door, and was staring
with sombre eyes at that velvet bonnet, that silk mantle, and that
charming, happy face.