登陆注册
12107900000061

第61章 PART ONE(60)

People arrange such departures tranquilly;but they are despairs!

A neighbor of the Thenardiers met this mother as she was setting out,and came back with the remark:——

'I have just seen a woman crying in the street so that it was enough to rend your heart.'

When Cosette's mother had taken her departure,the man said to the woman:——

'That will serve to pay my note for one hundred and ten francs which falls due to-morrow;I lacked fifty francs.

Do you know that I should have had a bailiff and a protest after me?You played the mouse-trap nicely with your young ones.'

'Without suspecting it,'said the woman.

BOOK FOURTH.——TO CONFIDE IS SOMETIMES TO DELIVER INTO A PERSON'S POWER

Ⅱ FIRST SKETCH OF TWO UNPREPOSSESSING FIGURES

The mouse which had been caught was a pitiful specimen;but the cat rejoices even over a lean mouse.

Who were these Thenardiers?

Let us say a word or two of them now.

We will complete the sketch later on.

These beings belonged to that bastard class composed of coarse people who have been successful,and of intelligent people who have descended in the scale,which is between the class called'middle'and the class denominated as'inferior,'and which combines some of the defects of the second with nearly all the vices of the first,without possessing the generous impulse of the workingman nor the honest order of the bourgeois.

They were of those dwarfed natures which,if a dull fire chances to warm them up,easily become monstrous.

There was in the woman a substratum of the brute,and in the man the material for a blackguard.Both were susceptible,in the highest degree,of the sort of hideous progress which is accomplished in the direction of evil.

There exist crab-like souls which are continually retreating towards the darkness,retrograding in life rather than advancing,employing experience to augment their deformity,growing incessantly worse,and becoming more and more impregnated with an ever-augmenting blackness.This man and woman possessed such souls.

Thenardier,in particular,was troublesome for a physiognomist.One can only look at some men to distrust them;for one feels that they are dark in both directions.

They are uneasy in the rear and threatening in front.

There is something of the unknown about them.One can no more answer for what they have done than for what they will do.

The shadow which they bear in their glance denounces them.From merely hearing them utter a word or seeing them make a gesture,one obtains a glimpse of sombre secrets in their past and of sombre mysteries in their future.

This Thenardier,if he himself was to be believed,had been a soldier——a sergeant,he said.

He had probably been through the campaign of 1815,and had even conducted himself with tolerable valor,it would seem.We shall see later on how much truth there was in this.

The sign of his hostelry was in allusion to one of his feats of arms.He had painted it himself;for he knew how to do a little of everything,and badly.

It was at the epoch when the ancient classical romance which,after having been Clelie,was no longer anything but Lodoiska,still noble,but ever more and more vulgar,having fallen from Mademoiselle de Scuderi to Madame Bournon-Malarme,and from Madame de Lafayette to Madame Barthelemy-Hadot,was setting the loving hearts of the portresses of Paris aflame,and even ravaging the suburbs to some extent.Madame Thenardier was just intelligent enough to read this sort of books.She lived on them.

In them she drowned what brains she possessed.This had given her,when very young,and even a little later,a sort of pensive attitude towards her husband,a scamp of a certain depth,a ruffian lettered to the extent of the grammar,coarse and fine at one and the same time,but,so far as sentimentalism was concerned,given to the perusal of Pigault-Lebrun,and'in what concerns the sex,'as he said in his jargon——a downright,unmitigated lout.

His wife was twelve or fifteen years younger than he was.

Later on,when her hair,arranged in a romantically drooping fashion,began to grow gray,when the Magaera began to be developed from the Pamela,the female Thenardier was nothing but a coarse,vicious woman,who had dabbled in stupid romances.

Now,one cannot read nonsense with impunity.The result was that her eldest daughter was named Eponine;as for the younger,the poor little thing came near being called Gulnare;I know not to what diversion,effected by a romance of Ducray-Dumenil,she owed the fact that she merely bore the name of Azelma.

However,we will remark by the way,everything was not ridiculous and superficial in that curious epoch to which we are alluding,and which may be designated as the anarchy of baptismal names.By the side of this romantic element which we have just indicated there is the social symptom.

It is not rare for the neatherd's boy nowadays to bear the name of Arthur,Alfred,or Alphonse,and for the vicomte——if there are still any vicomtes——to be called Thomas,Pierre,or Jacques.

This displacement,which places the'elegant'name on the plebeian and the rustic name on the aristocrat,is nothing else than an eddy of equality.

The irresistible penetration of the new inspiration is there as everywhere else.Beneath this apparent discord there is a great and a profound thing,——the French Revolution.

BOOK FOURTH.——TO CONFIDE IS SOMETIMES TO DELIVER INTO A PERSON'S POWER

Ⅲ It is not all in all sufficient to be wicked in order to prosper.The cook-shop was in a bad way.

Thanks to the traveller's fifty-seven francs,Thenardier had been able to avoid a protest and to honor his signature.

On the following month they were again in need of money.

The woman took Cosette's outfit to Paris,and pawned it at the pawnbroker's for sixty francs.As soon as that sum was spent,the Thenardiers grew accustomed to look on the little girl merely as a child whom they were caring for out of charity;and they treated her accordingly.

同类推荐
  • 四部丛刊书目

    四部丛刊书目

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 怪术

    怪术

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 赠严司直

    赠严司直

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 蚕书

    蚕书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 秘藏膏丹丸散方剂

    秘藏膏丹丸散方剂

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 藏龙穴:探寻龙族宝藏

    藏龙穴:探寻龙族宝藏

    在这场诡秘的博弈和历险中,往昔的友人和敌人都已凋零,唯我一人侥幸苟活。可这段噩梦一样的经历如今已成真正的梦魇,折磨得我近乎疯狂,活着也并非是一件幸事,如果你有过跟我一样经历,你肯定也会这样想吧。我想我若是再不将这些事情讲出来,恐怕马上就要陷入彻底的癫疯状态了!所以我选择用文字的方式将这些事情记述下来,不管有没有人能够看到,对于我来说都是一种莫大的释放和解脱。藏匿于中华大地各处地底古墓之中的玉龙到底存在着什么样的联系?神偷时迁后裔又有怎样的盗墓绝技?两个知青误入古墓,偶得一枚玉龙却引发出惊天之谜,阴错阳差、鬼使神差,他们不得不跟随三大江湖家族共展开诡异的寻宝旅程。
  • 妖恋轮回

    妖恋轮回

    二十八世,每一世孤独等待都是为了来世我们的再次相遇。一次次生离死别,背后隐藏了多少不为人知的心酸故事,她一个人曾躲在暗处背影无助地流尽过多少次泪水,唯有天地可知。名为坚强的面具之下,为的是保护一颗早已千疮百孔的心。自古人与妖相恋相爱,为令天地不容,乃至天道不仁罚下无边劫狱折磨苍生,戏其命数弄于股掌。我命由我,岂可天戏!一世舍身夺剑,天殇绝源,断自天命,身死人毁而入轮回新生。天若负我,终有一日,势必踏上九霄,怒断天道,凌傲苍穹!
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 谏书稀庵笔记

    谏书稀庵笔记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 萌妻要离婚:老公请签字

    萌妻要离婚:老公请签字

    从她再次睁开眼睛的那刻起,她便不是那个任人宰割的所谓的楚家少奶奶了,灭完渣渣再离婚。某男半倚在床边,看着她的眸光暗流婉转:“老婆,你该尽夫妻义务了。”某女不屑的抗议:“离婚。”下一秒,离婚协议纷纷洒落在床底,床上传来某女隐隐约约的抗议:“喂,不要咬那里。”【这是一个小小小小小虐的故事~】
  • 神陆

    神陆

    未来的世界,人类探索的脚步迈向无垠的星空。星际探险家们发现了拥有神灵和魔法的图坦星,由于存在着不同的法则,主世界的科技在这颗星球上完全失去了作用,人们唯有通过意识传送才能降临到这个奇特的世界生活、冒险和战斗,因此诞生了“神陆”。在地球上挣扎求存的落魄佣兵苏阳,降临到神陆成为了一名小小的新手猎人,开始他成为传奇的第一步!--------------------新人新作,倾力打造玄幻版的阿凡达!
  • 火爆小妞成长记

    火爆小妞成长记

    宋小妖,蓬莱仙岛少主子,风华绝代小美人,身份成谜,一身元气与众不同,性子有点小霸气、小邪气,耍的了酷,卖的了萌,坑人无声无息。寻亲路,强者诞!一代风华妖女,戏人生!
  • 灵异诡谈之阴阳圣女

    灵异诡谈之阴阳圣女

    猫喝人血,是成了精还是……标本室里传来婴儿的啼哭声,是偶然还是……酒店浴缸里的假发是上任房客落下的还是……十字路口处一个抱着孩子的女子一直冲我笑,是幻觉还是……一步步揭开身世之谜,走近自己的前世今生,探寻所有问题的扑朔迷离的答案……
  • 网游之疯狂回归

    网游之疯狂回归

    天煞孤星,一心为爱,化身狂魔,只为一人,技压群雄,后宫无敌,弹指一瞬,沧海尽变。当然以上和本文没有啥关系。本文讲述的只是一个普通学生的简单游戏生涯,真的是普通学生?真的是简单游戏生涯?当然一切都在书中,怎么说的尽道的明呢?
  • 无敌修仙

    无敌修仙

    求仙之路,漫漫长远,谁能走上巅峰,镇压群雄,无敌于世间。我不想成仙,但是为了保护我爱的人,干掉威胁世界和平的暴力分子,我不得不开始修炼,走上修炼成仙之路!这都是你们这些蠢材逼我的,没有办法,我只能苦苦修炼,修成无上正果,将你们一一镇压!武道巅峰,谁与我争锋!