按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
I bless you; young man。 My eldest daughter will tell you that we have been without a morsel of bread for two days; four persons and my spouse ill。
If I am not deseaved in my opinion; I think I may hope that your generous heart will melt at this statement and the desire will subjugate you to be propitious to me by daigning to lavish on me a slight favor。
I am with the distinguished consideration which is due to the benefactors of humanity;
Jondrette。
P。S。 My eldest daughter will await your orders; dear Monsieur Marius。
This letter; ing in the very midst of the mysterious adventure which had occupied Marius' thoughts ever since the preceding evening; was like a candle in a cellar。
All was suddenly illuminated。
This letter came from the same place as the other four。 There was the same writing; the same style; the same orthography; the same paper; the same odor of tobacco。
There were five missives; five histories; five signatures; and a single signer。
The Spanish Captain Don Alvares; the unhappy Mistress Balizard; the dramatic poet Genflot; the old edian Fabantou; were all four named Jondrette; if; indeed; Jondrette himself were named Jondrette。
Marius had lived in the house for a tolerably long time; and he had had; as we have said; but very rare occasion to see; to even catch a glimpse of; his extremely mean neighbors。
His mind was elsewhere; and where the mind is; there the eyes are also。 He had been obliged more than once to pass the Jondrettes in the corridor or on the stairs; but they were mere forms to him; he had paid so little heed to them; that; on the preceding evening; he had jostled the Jondrette girls on the boulevard; without recognizing them; for it had evidently been they; and it was with great difficulty that the one who had just entered his room had awakened in him; in spite of disgust and pity; a vague recollection of having met her elsewhere。
Now he saw everything clearly。
He understood that his neighbor Jondrette; in his distress; exercised the industry of speculating on the charity of benevolent persons; that he procured addresses; and that he wrote under feigned names to people whom he judged to be wealthy and passionate; letters which his daughters delivered at their risk and peril; for this father had e to such a pass; that he risked his daughters; he was playing a game with fate; and he used them as the stake。
Marius understood that probably; judging from their flight on the evening before; from their breathless condition; from their terror and from the words of slang which he had overheard; these unfortunate creatures were plying some inexplicably sad profession; and that the result of the whole was; in the midst of human society; as it is now constituted; two miserable beings who were neither girls nor women; a species of impure and innocent monsters produced by misery。
Sad creatures; without name; or sex; or age; to whom neither good nor evil were any longer possible; and who; on emerging from childhood; have already nothing in this world; neither liberty; nor virtue; nor responsibility。
Souls which blossomed out yesterday; and are faded to…day; like those flowers let fall in the streets; which are soiled with every sort of mire; while waiting for some wheel to crush them。 Nevertheless; while Marius bent a pained and astonished gaze on her; the young girl was wandering back and forth in the garret with the audacity of a spectre。
She kicked about; without troubling herself as to her nakedness。
Occasionally her chemise; which was untied and torn; fell almost to her waist。
She moved the chairs about; she disarranged the toilet articles which stood on the mode; she handled Marius' clothes; she rummaged about to see what there was in the corners。
〃Hullo!〃 said she; 〃you have a mirror!〃
And she hummed scraps of vaudevilles; as though she had been alone; frolicsome refrains which her hoarse and guttural voice rendered lugubrious。
An indescribable constraint; weariness; and humiliation were perceptible beneath this hardihood。
Effrontery is a disgrace。
Nothing could be more melancholy than to see her sport about the room; and; so to speak; flit with the movements of a bird which is frightened by the daylight; or which has broken its wing。 One felt that under other conditions of education and destiny; the gay and over…free mien of this young girl might have turned out sweet and charming。
Never; even among animals; does the creature born to be a dove change into an osprey。
That is only to be seen among men。
Marius reflected; and allowed her to have her way。
She approached the table。
〃Ah!〃 said she; 〃books!〃
A flash pierced her glassy eye。
She resumed; and her accent expressed the happiness which she felt in boasting of something; to which no human creature is insensible:
〃I know how to read; I do!〃
She eagerly seized a book which lay open on the table; and read with tolerable fluency:
〃General Bauduin received orders to take the chateau of Hougomont which stands in the middle of the plain of Waterloo; with five battalions of his brigade。〃
She paused。
〃Ah!
Waterloo!
I know about that。
It was a battle long ago。 My father was there。
My father has served in the armies。
We are fine Bonapartists in our house; that we are!
Waterloo was against the English。〃
She laid down the book; caught up a pen; and exclaimed:
〃And I know how to write; too!〃
She dipped her pen in the ink; and turning to Marius:
〃Do you want to see?
Look here; I'm going to write a word to show you。〃
And before he had time to answer; she wrote on a sheet of white paper; which lay in the middle of the table:
〃The bobbies are here。〃
Then throwing down the pen:
〃There are no faults of orthography。
You can look。
We have received an education; my sister and I。 We have not always been as we are now。 We were not made〃
Here she paused; fixed her dull eyes on Marius; and burst out laughing; saying; with an intonation which contained every form of anguish; stifled by every form of cynicism: