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Les Misérables: III Quadrifrons

Les Misérables
III Quadrifrons
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table of contents
  1. Titlepage
  2. Imprint
  3. Preface
  4. Les Misérables
    1. Volume I: Fantine
      1. Book I: A Just Man
        1. I: M. Myriel
        2. II: M. Myriel Becomes M. Welcome
        3. III: A Hard Bishopric for a Good Bishop
        4. IV: Works Corresponding to Words
        5. V: Monseigneur Bienvenu Made His Cassocks Last Too Long
        6. VI: Who Guarded His House for Him
        7. VII: Cravatte
        8. VIII: Philosophy After Drinking
        9. IX: The Brother as Depicted by the Sister
        10. X: The Bishop in the Presence of an Unknown Light
        11. XI: A Restriction
        12. XII: The Solitude of Monseigneur Welcome
        13. XIII: What He Believed
        14. XIV: What He Thought
      2. Book II: The Fall
        1. I: The Evening of a Day of Walking
        2. II: Prudence Counselled to Wisdom.
        3. III: The Heroism of Passive Obedience.
        4. IV: Details Concerning the Cheese-Dairies of Pontarlier.
        5. V: Tranquillity
        6. VI: Jean Valjean
        7. VII: The Interior of Despair
        8. VIII: Billows and Shadows
        9. IX: New Troubles
        10. X: The Man Aroused
        11. XI: What He Does
        12. XII: The Bishop Works
        13. XIII: Little Gervais
      3. Book III: In the Year 1817
        1. I: The Year 1817
        2. II: A Double Quartette
        3. III: Four and Four
        4. IV: Tholomyès Is So Merry That He Sings a Spanish Ditty
        5. V: At Bombarda’s
        6. VI: A Chapter in Which They Adore Each Other
        7. VII: The Wisdom of Tholomyès
        8. VIII: The Death of a Horse
        9. IX: A Merry End to Mirth
      4. Book IV: To Confide Is Sometimes to Deliver Into a Person’s Power
        1. I: One Mother Meets Another Mother
        2. II: First Sketch of Two Unprepossessing Figures
        3. III: The Lark
      5. Book V: The Descent
        1. I: The History of a Progress in Black Glass Trinkets
        2. II: Madeleine
        3. III: Sums Deposited with Laffitte
        4. IV: M. Madeleine in Mourning
        5. V: Vague Flashes on the Horizon
        6. VI: Father Fauchelevent
        7. VII: Fauchelevent Becomes a Gardener in Paris
        8. VIII: Madame Victurnien Expends Thirty Francs on Morality
        9. IX: Madame Victurnien’s Success
        10. X: Result of the Success
        11. XI: Christus Nos Liberavit
        12. XII: M. Bamatabois’s Inactivity
        13. XIII: The Solution of Some Questions Connected with the Municipal Police
      6. Book VI: Javert
        1. I: The Beginning of Repose
        2. II: How Jean May Become Champ
      7. Book VII: The Champmathieu Affair
        1. I: Sister Simplice
        2. II: The Perspicacity of Master Scaufflaire
        3. III: A Tempest in a Skull
        4. IV: Forms Assumed by Suffering During Sleep
        5. V: Hindrances
        6. VI: Sister Simplice Put to the Proof
        7. VII: The Traveller on His Arrival Takes Precautions for Departure
        8. VIII: An Entrance by Favor
        9. IX: A Place Where Convictions Are in Process of Formation
        10. X: The System of Denials
        11. XI: Champmathieu More and More Astonished
      8. Book VIII: A Counterblow
        1. I: In What Mirror M. Madeleine Contemplates His Hair
        2. II: Fantine Happy
        3. III: Javert Satisfied
        4. IV: Authority Reasserts Its Rights
        5. V: A Suitable Tomb
    2. Volume II: Cosette
      1. Book I: Waterloo
        1. I: What Is Met with on the Way from Nivelles
        2. II: Hougomont
        3. III: The Eighteenth of June, 1815
        4. IV: A
        5. V: The Quid Obscurum of Battles
        6. VI: Four O’Clock in the Afternoon
        7. VII: Napoleon in a Good Humor
        8. VIII: The Emperor Puts a Question to the Guide Lacoste
        9. IX: The Unexpected
        10. X: The Plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean
        11. XI: A Bad Guide to Napoleon; A Good Guide to Bülow
        12. XII: The Guard
        13. XIII: The Catastrophe
        14. XIV: The Last Square
        15. XV: Cambronne
        16. XVI: Quot Libras in Duce?
        17. XVII: Is Waterloo to Be Considered Good?
        18. XVIII: A Recrudescence of Divine Right
        19. XIX: The Battlefield at Night
      2. Book II: The Ship Orion
        1. I: Number 24,601 Becomes Number 9,430
        2. II: In Which the Reader Will Peruse Two Verses, Which Are of the Devil’s Composition, Possibly
        3. III: The Ankle-Chain Must Have Undergone a Certain Preparatory Manipulation to Be Thus Broken with a Blow from a Hammer
      3. Book III: Accomplishment of the Promise Made to the Dead Woman
        1. I: The Water Question at Montfermeil
        2. II: Two Complete Portraits
        3. III: Men Must Have Wine, and Horses Must Have Water
        4. IV: Entrance on the Scene of a Doll
        5. V: The Little One All Alone
        6. VI: Which Possibly Proves Boulatruelle’s Intelligence
        7. VII: Cosette Side by Side with the Stranger in the Dark
        8. VIII: The Unpleasantness of Receiving Into One’s House a Poor Man Who May Be a Rich Man
        9. IX: Thénardier and His Manouvres
        10. X: He Who Seeks to Better Himself May Render His Situation Worse
        11. XI: Number 9,430 Reappears, and Cosette Wins It in the Lottery
      4. Book IV: The Gorbeau Hovel
        1. I: Master Gorbeau
        2. II: A Nest for Owl and a Warbler
        3. III: Two Misfortunes Make One Piece of Good Fortune
        4. IV: The Remarks of the Principal Tenant
        5. V: A Five-Franc Piece Falls on the Ground and Produces a Tumult
      5. Book V: For a Black Hunt, a Mute Pack
        1. I: The Zigzags of Strategy
        2. II: It Is Lucky That the Pont d’Austerlitz Bears Carriages
        3. III: To Wit, the Plan of Paris in 1727
        4. IV: The Gropings of Flight
        5. V: Which Would Be Impossible with Gas Lanterns
        6. VI: The Beginning of an Enigma
        7. VII: Continuation of the Enigma
        8. VIII: The Enigma Becomes Doubly Mysterious
        9. IX: The Man with the Bell
        10. X: Which Explains How Javert Got on the Scent
      6. Book VI: Le Petit-Picpus
        1. I: Number 62 Rue Petit-Picpus
        2. II: The Obedience of Martin Verga
        3. III: Austerities
        4. IV: Gayeties
        5. V: Distractions
        6. VI: The Little Convent
        7. VII: Some Silhouettes of This Darkness
        8. VIII: Post Corda Lapides
        9. IX: A Century Under a Guimpe
        10. X: Origin of the Perpetual Adoration
        11. XI: End of the Petit-Picpus
      7. Book VII: Parenthesis
        1. I: The Convent as an Abstract Idea
        2. II: The Convent as an Historical Fact
        3. III: On What Conditions One Can Respect the Past
        4. IV: The Convent from the Point of View of Principles
        5. V: Prayer
        6. VI: The Absolute Goodness of Prayer
        7. VII: Precautions to Be Observed in Blame
        8. VIII: Faith, Law
      8. Book VIII: Cemeteries Take That Which Is Committed Them
        1. I: Which Treats of the Manner of Entering a Convent
        2. II: Fauchelevent in the Presence of a Difficulty
        3. III: Mother Innocente
        4. IV: In Which Jean Valjean Has Quite the Air of Having Read Austin Castillejo
        5. V: It Is Not Necessary to Be Drunk in Order to Be Immortal
        6. VI: Between Four Planks
        7. VII: In Which Will Be Found the Origin of the Saying: Don’t Lose the Card
        8. VIII: A Successful Interrogatory
        9. IX: Cloistered
    3. Volume III: Marius
      1. Book I: Paris Studied in Its Atom
        1. I: Parvulus
        2. II: Some of His Particular Characteristics
        3. III: He Is Agreeable
        4. IV: He May Be of Use
        5. V: His Frontiers
        6. VI: A Bit of History
        7. VII: The Gamin Should Have His Place in the Classifications of India
        8. VIII: In Which the Reader Will Find a Charming Saying of the Last King
        9. IX: The Old Soul of Gaul
        10. X: Ecce Paris, Ecce Homo
        11. XI: To Scoff, to Reign
        12. XII: The Future Latent in the People
        13. XIII: Little Gavroche
      2. Book II: The Great Bourgeois
        1. I: Ninety Years and Thirty-Two Teeth
        2. II: Like Master, Like House
        3. III: Luc-Esprit
        4. IV: A Centenarian Aspirant
        5. V: Basque and Nicolette
        6. VI: In Which Magnon and Her Two Children Are Seen
        7. VII: Rule: Receive No One Except in the Evening
        8. VIII: Two Do Not Make a Pair
      3. Book III: The Grandfather and the Grandson
        1. I: An Ancient Salon
        2. II: One of the Red Spectres of That Epoch
        3. III: Requiescant
        4. IV: End of the Brigand
        5. V: The Utility of Going to Mass, in Order to Become a Revolutionist
        6. VI: The Consequences of Having Met a Warden
        7. VII: Some Petticoat
        8. VIII: Marble Against Granite
      4. Book IV: The Friends of the ABC
        1. I: A Group Which Barely Missed Becoming Historic
        2. II: Blondeau’s Funeral Oration by Bossuet
        3. III: Marius’ Astonishments
        4. IV: The Back Room of the Café Musain
        5. V: Enlargement of Horizon
        6. VI: Res Angusta
      5. Book V: The Excellence of Misfortune
        1. I: Marius Indigent
        2. II: Marius Poor
        3. III: Marius Grown Up
        4. IV: M. Mabeuf
        5. V: Poverty a Good Neighbor for Misery
        6. VI: The Substitute
      6. Book VI: The Conjunction of Two Stars
        1. I: The Sobriquet: Mode of Formation of Family Names
        2. II: Lux Facta Est
        3. III: Effect of the Spring
        4. IV: Beginning of a Great Malady
        5. V: Divers Claps of Thunder Fall on Ma’Am Bougon
        6. VI: Taken Prisoner
        7. VII: Adventures of the Letter U Delivered Over to Conjectures
        8. VIII: The Veterans Themselves Can Be Happy
        9. IX: Eclipse
      7. Book VII: Patron Minette
        1. I: Mines and Miners
        2. II: The Lowest Depths
        3. III: Babet, Gueulemer, Claquesous, and Montparnasse
        4. IV: Composition of the Troupe
      8. Book VIII: The Wicked Poor Man
        1. I: Marius, While Seeking a Girl in a Bonnet, Encounters a Man in a Cap
        2. II: Treasure Trove
        3. III: Quadrifrons
        4. IV: A Rose in Misery
        5. V: A Providential Peephole
        6. VI: The Wild Man in His Lair
        7. VII: Strategy and Tactics
        8. VIII: The Ray of Light in the Hovel
        9. IX: Jondrette Comes Near Weeping
        10. X: Tariff of Licensed Cabs: Two Francs an Hour
        11. XI: Offers of Service from Misery to Wretchedness
        12. XII: The Use Made of M. Leblanc’s Five-Franc Piece
        13. XIII: Solus Cum Solo, in Loco Remoto, Non Cogitabuntur Orare Pater Noster
        14. XIV: In Which a Police Agent Bestows Two Fistfuls on a Lawyer
        15. XV: Jondrette Makes His Purchases
        16. XVI: In Which Will Be Found the Words to an English Air Which Was in Fashion in 1832
        17. XVII: The Use Made of Marius’ Five-Franc Piece
        18. XVIII: Marius’ Two Chairs Form a Vis-A-Vis
        19. XIX: Occupying One’s Self with Obscure Depths
        20. XX: The Trap
        21. XXI: One Should Always Begin by Arresting the Victims
        22. XXII: The Little One Who Was Crying in Volume Two
    4. Volume IV: The Idyl in the Rue Plumet and the Epic in the Rue Saint-Denis
      1. Book I: A Few Pages of History
        1. I: Well Cut
        2. II: Badly Sewed
        3. III: Louis Philippe
        4. IV: Cracks Beneath the Foundation
        5. V: Facts Whence History Springs and Which History Ignores
        6. VI: Enjolras and His Lieutenants
      2. Book II: Éponine
        1. I: The Lark’s Meadow
        2. II: Embryonic Formation of Crimes in the Incubation of Prisons
        3. III: Apparition to Father Mabeuf
        4. IV: An Apparition to Marius
      3. Book III: The House in the Rue Plumet
        1. I: The House with a Secret
        2. II: Jean Valjean as a National Guard
        3. III: Foliis Ac Frondibus
        4. IV: Change of Gate
        5. V: The Rose Perceives That It Is an Engine of War
        6. VI: The Battle Begun
        7. VII: To One Sadness Oppose a Sadness and a Half
        8. VIII: The Chain-Gang
      4. Book IV: Succor from Below May Turn Out to Be Succor from on High
        1. I: A Wound Without, Healing Within
        2. II: Mother Plutarque Finds No Difficulty in Explaining a Phenomenon
      5. Book V: The End of Which Does Not Resemble the Beginning
        1. I: Solitude and the Barracks Combined
        2. II: Cosette’s Apprehensions
        3. III: Enriched with Commentaries by Toussaint
        4. IV: A Heart Beneath a Stone
        5. V: Cosette After the Letter
        6. VI: Old People Are Made to Go Out Opportunely
      6. Book VI: Little Gavroche
        1. I: The Malicious Playfulness of the Wind
        2. II: In Which Little Gavroche Extracts Profit from Napoleon the Great
        3. III: The Vicissitudes of Flight
      7. Book VII: Slang
        1. I: Origin
        2. II: Roots
        3. III: Slang Which Weeps and Slang Which Laughs
        4. IV: The Two Duties: To Watch and to Hope
      8. Book VIII: Enchantments and Desolations
        1. I: Full Light
        2. II: The Bewilderment of Perfect Happiness
        3. III: The Beginning of Shadow
        4. IV: A Cab Runs in English and Barks in Slang
        5. V: Things of the Night
        6. VI: Marius Becomes Practical Once More to the Extent of Giving Cosette His Address
        7. VII: The Old Heart and the Young Heart in the Presence of Each Other
      9. Book IX: Whither Are They Going?
        1. I: Jean Valjean
        2. II: Marius
        3. III: M. Mabeuf
      10. Book X: The 5th of June, 1832
        1. I: The Surface of the Question
        2. II: The Root of the Matter
        3. III: A Burial; An Occasion to Be Born Again
        4. IV: The Ebullitions of Former Days
        5. V: Originality of Paris
      11. Book XI: The Atom Fraternizes with the Hurricane
        1. I: Some Explanations with Regard to the Origin of Gavroche’s Poetry.
        2. II: Gavroche on the March
        3. III: Just Indignation of a Hairdresser
        4. IV: The Child Is Amazed at the Old Man
        5. V: The Old Man
        6. VI: Recruits
      12. Book XII: Corinthe
        1. I: History of Corinthe from Its Foundation
        2. II: Preliminary Gayeties
        3. III: Night Begins to Descend Upon Grantaire
        4. IV: An Attempt to Console the Widow Hucheloup
        5. V: Preparations
        6. VI: Waiting
        7. VII: The Man Recruited in the Rue Des Billettes
        8. VIII: Many Interrogation Points with Regard to a Certain le Cabuc
      13. Book XIII: Marius Enters the Shadow
        1. I: From the Rue Plumet to the Quartier Saint-Denis
        2. II: An Owl’s View of Paris
        3. III: The Extreme Edge
      14. Book XIV: The Grandeurs of Despair
        1. I: The Flag: Act First
        2. II: The Flag: Act Second
        3. III: Gavroche Would Have Done Better to Accept Enjolras’ Carbine
        4. IV: The Barrel of Powder
        5. V: End of the Verses of Jean Prouvaire
        6. VI: The Agony of Death After the Agony of Life
        7. VII: Gavroche as a Profound Calculator of Distances
      15. Book XV: The Rue de L’Homme Armé
        1. I: A Drinker Is a Babbler
        2. II: The Street Urchin an Enemy of Light
        3. III: While Cosette and Toussaint Are Asleep
        4. IV: Gavroche’s Excess of Zeal
    5. Volume V: Jean Valjean
      1. Book I: The War Between Four Walls
        1. I: The Charybdis of the Faubourg Saint Antoine and the Scylla
        2. II: What Is to Be Done in the Abyss if One Does Not Converse
        3. III: Light and Shadow
        4. IV: Minus Five, Plus One
        5. V: The Horizon Which One Beholds from the Summit of a Barricade
        6. VI: Marius Haggard, Javert Laconic
        7. VII: The Situation Becomes Aggravated
        8. VIII: The Artillerymen Compel People to Take Them Seriously
        9. IX: Employment of the Old Talents of a Poacher and That Infallible Marksmanship Which Influenced the Condemnation of 1796
        10. X: Dawn
        11. XI: The Shot Which Misses Nothing and Kills No One
        12. XII: Disorder a Partisan of Order
        13. XIII: Passing Gleams
        14. XIV: Wherein Will Appear the Name of Enjolras’ Mistress
        15. XV: Gavroche Outside
        16. XVI: How from a Brother One Becomes a Father
        17. XVII: Mortuus Pater Filium Moriturum Expectat
        18. XVIII: The Vulture Become Prey
        19. XIX: Jean Valjean Takes His Revenge
        20. XX: The Dead Are in the Right and the Living Are Not in the Wrong
        21. XXI: The Heroes
        22. XXII: Foot to Foot
        23. XXIII: Orestes Fasting and Pylades Drunk
        24. XXIV: Prisoner
      2. Book II: The Intestine of the Leviathan
        1. I: The Land Impoverished by the Sea
        2. II: Ancient History of the Sewer
        3. III: Bruneseau
        4. IV
        5. V: Present Progress
        6. VI: Future Progress
      3. Book III: Mud but the Soul
        1. I: The Sewer and Its Surprises
        2. II: Explanation
        3. III: The “Spun” Man
        4. IV: He Also Bears His Cross
        5. V: In the Case of Sand as in That of Woman, There Is a Fineness Which Is Treacherous
        6. VI: The Fontis
        7. VII: One Sometimes Runs Aground When One Fancies That One Is Disembarking
        8. VIII: The Torn Coattail
        9. IX: Marius Produces on Some One Who Is a Judge of the Matter, the Effect of Being Dead
        10. X: Return of the Son Who Was Prodigal of His Life
        11. XI: Concussion in the Absolute
        12. XII: The Grandfather
      4. Book IV: Javert Derailed
        1. I
      5. Book V: Grandson and Grandfather
        1. I: In Which the Tree with the Zinc Plaster Appears Again
        2. II: Marius, Emerging from Civil War, Makes Ready for Domestic War
        3. III: Marius Attacked
        4. IV: Mademoiselle Gillenormand Ends by No Longer Thinking It a Bad Thing That M. Fauchelevent Should Have Entered with Something Under His Arm
        5. V: Deposit Your Money in a Forest Rather Than with a Notary
        6. VI: The Two Old Men Do Everything, Each One After His Own Fashion, to Render Cosette Happy
        7. VII: The Effects of Dreams Mingled with Happiness
        8. VIII: Two Men Impossible to Find
      6. Book VI: The Sleepless Night
        1. I: The 16th of February, 1833
        2. II: Jean Valjean Still Wears His Arm in a Sling
        3. III: The Inseparable
        4. IV: The Immortal Liver
      7. Book VII: The Last Draught from the Cup
        1. I: The Seventh Circle and the Eighth Heaven
        2. II: The Obscurities Which a Revelation Can Contain
      8. Book VIII: Fading Away of the Twilight
        1. I: The Lower Chamber
        2. II: Another Step Backwards
        3. III: They Recall the Garden of the Rue Plumet
        4. IV: Attraction and Extinction
      9. Book IX: Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn
        1. I: Pity for the Unhappy, but Indulgence for the Happy
        2. II: Last Flickerings of a Lamp Without Oil
        3. III: A Pen Is Heavy to the Man Who Lifted the Fauchelevent’s Cart
        4. IV: A Bottle of Ink Which Only Succeeded in Whitening
        5. V: A Night Behind Which There Is Day
        6. VI: The Grass Covers and the Rain Effaces
  5. Endnotes
  6. List of Illustrations
  7. Colophon
  8. Uncopyright

III Quadrifrons

That evening, as he was undressing preparatory to going to bed, his hand came in contact, in the pocket of his coat, with the packet which he had picked up on the boulevard. He had forgotten it. He thought that it would be well to open it, and that this package might possibly contain the address of the young girls, if it really belonged to them, and, in any case, the information necessary to a restitution to the person who had lost it.

He opened the envelope.

It was not sealed and contained four letters, also unsealed.

They bore addresses.

All four exhaled a horrible odor of tobacco.

The first was addressed:

To Madame, Madame la Marquise de Grucheray,
the place opposite the Chamber of Deputies, No.—

Marius said to himself, that he should probably find in it the information which he sought, and that, moreover, the letter being open, it was probable that it could be read without impropriety.

It was conceived as follows:—

Madame la Marquise:

The virtue of clemency and piety is that which most closely unites sosiety. Turn your Christian spirit and cast a look of compassion on this unfortunate Spanish victim of loyalty and attachment to the sacred cause of legitimacy, who has given with his blood, consecrated his fortune, evverything, to defend that cause, and today finds himself in the greatest missery. He doubts not that your honorable person will grant succor to preserve an existence exteremely painful for a military man of education and honor full of wounds, counts in advance on the humanity which animates you and on the interest which Madame la Marquise bears to a nation so unfortunate. Their prayer will not be in vain, and their gratitude will preserve theirs charming souvenir.

My respectful sentiments, with which I have the honor to be Madame,

Don Alvarès,
Spanish Captain of Cavalry, a royalist who has take refuge in France, who finds himself on travells for his country, and the resources are lacking him to continue his travells.

No address was joined to the signature. Marius hoped to find the address in the second letter, whose superscription read:

À Madame, Madame la Comtesse de Montvernet,
Rue Cassette, No. 9.

This is what Marius read in it:—

Madame la Comtesse:

It is an unhappy mother of a family of six children the last of which is only eight months old. I sick since my last confinement, abandoned by my husband five months ago, haveing no resources in the world the most frightful indigance. In the hope of Madame la Comtesse, she has the honor to be, Madame, with profound respect,

Mistress Balizard.

Marius turned to the third letter, which was a petition like the preceding; he read:—

Monsieur Pabourgeot, Elector,
Wholesale stocking merchant,
Rue Saint-Denis on the corner of the Rue aux Fers.

I permit myself to address you this letter to beg you to grant me the pretious favor of your simpaties and to interest yourself in a man of letters who has just sent a drama to the Théâtre-Français. The subject is historical, and the action takes place in Auvergne in the time of the Empire; the style, I think, is natural, laconic, and may have some merit. There are couplets to be sung in four places. The comic, the serious, the unexpected, are mingled in a variety of characters, and a tinge of romanticism lightly spread through all the intrigue which proceeds misteriously, and ends, after striking altarations, in the midst of many beautiful strokes of brilliant scenes.

My principal object is to satisfi the desire which progressively animates the man of our century, that is to say, the fashion, that capritious and bizarre weathervane which changes at almost every new wind.

In spite of these qualities I have reason to fear that jealousy, the egotism of priviliged authors, may obtaine my exclusion from the theatre, for I am not ignorant of the mortifications with which newcomers are treated.

Monsiuer Pabourgeot, your just reputation as an enlightened protector of men of litters emboldens me to send you my daughter who will explain our indigant situation to you, lacking bread and fire in this wynter season. When I say to you that I beg you to accept the dedication of my drama which I desire to make to you and of all those that I shall make, is to prove to you how great is my ambition to have the honor of sheltering myself under your protection, and of adorning my writings with your name. If you deign to honor me with the most modest offering, I shall immediately occupy myself in making a piesse of verse to pay you my tribute of gratitude. Which I shall endeavor to render this piesse as perfect as possible, will be sent to you before it is inserted at the beginning of the drama and delivered on the stage.

To Monsieur and Madame Pabourgeot, My most respectful complements,

Genflot,
man of letters.

P.S. Even if it is only forty sous.
Excuse me for sending my daughter and not presenting myself, but sad motives connected with the toilet do not permit me, alas! to go out.

Finally, Marius opened the fourth letter. The address ran:

To the benevolent Gentleman
of the church of Saint-Jacques-du-haut-Pas

It contained the following lines:—

Benevolent Man:

If you deign to accompany my daughter, you will behold a misserable calamity, and I will show you my certificates.

At the aspect of these writings your generous soul will be moved with a sentiment of obvious benevolence, for true philosophers always feel lively emotions.

Admit, compassionate man, that it is necessary to suffer the most cruel need, and that it is very painful, for the sake of obtaining a little relief, to get oneself attested by the authorities as though one were not free to suffer and to die of inanition while waiting to have our misery relieved. Destinies are very fatal for several and too prodigal or too protecting for others.

I await your presence or your offering, if you deign to make one, and I beseech you to accept the respectful sentiments with which I have the honor to be,

truly magnanimous man, your very humble and very obedient servant,

P. Fabantou,
dramatic artist.

After perusing these four letters, Marius did not find himself much further advanced than before.

In the first place, not one of the signers gave his address.

Then, they seemed to come from four different individuals, Don Alvarès, Mistress Balizard, the poet Genflot, and dramatic artist Fabantou; but the singular thing about these letters was, that all four were written by the same hand.

What conclusion was to be drawn from this, except that they all come from the same person?

Moreover, and this rendered the conjecture all the more probable, the coarse and yellow paper was the same in all four, the odor of tobacco was the same, and, although an attempt had been made to vary the style, the same orthographical faults were reproduced with the greatest tranquillity, and the man of letters Genflot was no more exempt from them than the Spanish captain.

It was waste of trouble to try to solve this petty mystery. Had it not been a chance find, it would have borne the air of a mystification. Marius was too melancholy to take even a chance pleasantry well, and to lend himself to a game which the pavement of the street seemed desirous of playing with him. It seemed to him that he was playing the part of the blind man in blind man’s buff between the four letters, and that they were making sport of him.

Nothing, however, indicated that these letters belonged to the two young girls whom Marius had met on the boulevard. After all, they were evidently papers of no value. Marius replaced them in their envelope, flung the whole into a corner and went to bed. About seven o’clock in the morning, he had just risen and breakfasted, and was trying to settle down to work, when there came a soft knock at his door.

As he owned nothing, he never locked his door, unless occasionally, though very rarely, when he was engaged in some pressing work. Even when absent he left his key in the lock. “You will be robbed,” said Ma’am Bougon. “Of what?” said Marius. The truth is, however, that he had, one day, been robbed of an old pair of boots, to the great triumph of Ma’am Bougon.

There came a second knock, as gentle as the first.

“Come in,” said Marius.

The door opened.

“What do you want, Ma’am Bougon?” asked Marius, without raising his eyes from the books and manuscripts on his table.

A voice which did not belong to Ma’am Bougon replied:—

“Excuse me, sir—”

It was a dull, broken, hoarse, strangled voice, the voice of an old man, roughened with brandy and liquor.

Marius turned round hastily, and beheld a young girl.

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