A SUNBEAM IN THE GARRET.
The elder girl walked up to her father and laid her hand in his.
"Just feel how cold I am!" she said.
"Stuff!" the father answered; "I am much colder than that."
The mother cried impetuously,--
"You always have everything more than others, even evil."
"Off with you!" said the man.
The mother, looked at by him in a certain way, held her tongue, and
there was a momentary silence in the den. The elder girl was carelessly
removing the mud from the edge of her cloak, and her younger sister
continued to sob. The mother had taken her head between her hands, and
covered it with kisses, while whispering,--
"Pray do not go on so, my treasure; it will be nothing, so don't cry,
or you will vex your father."
"No," the father cried, "on the contrary, sob away, for that does good."
Then he turned to the elder girl,--
"Why, he is not coming! Suppose he were not to come! I should have
broken my pane, put out my fire, unseated my chair, and torn my shirt
all for nothing."
"And hurt the little one," the mother murmured.
"Do you know," the father continued, "that it is infernally cold in
this devil's own garret? Suppose the man did not come! But no, he is
keeping us waiting, and says to himself, 'Well, they will wait my
pleasure, they are sent into the world for that!' Oh, how I hate the
rich, and with what joy, jubilation, enthusiasm, and satisfaction would
I strangle them all! All the rich, I say,--those pretended charitable
men who play the devout, attend Mass, keep in with the priests and
believe themselves above us, and who come to humiliate us and bring
us clothes! How they talk! They bring us old rubbish not worth four
sous, and bread; but it is not _that_ I want, you pack of scoundrels,
but money. Ah, money! Never! because they say that we would go and
drink, and that we are drunkards and idlers. And they--what are they,
pray, and what have they been in their time? Thieves, for they could
not have grown rich without that. Oh, society ought to be taken by the
four corners of a table-cloth and the whole lot thrown into the air!
All would be broken, very possibly, but at any rate no one would have
anything, and that would be so much gained! But what is your humbug
of a benevolent gentleman about? Will he come? Perhaps the ass has
forgotten the address. I will bet that the old brute--"
At this moment there was a gentle tap at the door; the man rushed
forward and opened it, while exclaiming with deep bows and smiles of
adoration,--
"Come in, sir; deign to enter, my respected benefactor, as well as your
charming daughter."
A man of middle age and a young lady stood in the doorway; Marius had
not left his post, and what he felt at this moment is beyond the human
tongue.
It was SHE; and any one who has loved knows the radiant meaning
conveyed in the three letters that form the word SHE. It was certainly
she, though Marius could hardly distinguish her through the luminous
vapor which had suddenly spread over his eyes. It was the gentle
creature he had lost, the star which had gleamed on him for six
months; it was the forehead, the mouth,--the lovely mouth which
had produced night by departing. The eclipse was over, and she now
reappeared,--reappeared in this darkness, in this attic, in this filthy
den, in this horror. Marius trembled. What! it was she! The palpitation
of his heart affected his sight, and he felt ready to burst into tears.
What! he saw her again after seeking her so long! It seemed to him as
if he had lost his soul and had just found it again. She was still
the same, though perhaps a little paler; her delicate face was framed
in a violet velvet bonnet, and her waist was hidden by a black satin
pelisse; a glimpse of her little foot in a silk boot could be caught
under her long dress. She was accompanied by M. Leblanc, and she walked
into the room and placed a rather large parcel on the table. The elder
girl had withdrawn behind the door, and looked with a jealous eye at
the velvet bonnet, the satin pelisse, and the charming, happy face.