JONDRETTE MAKES HIS PURCHASE.
At about three o'clock Courfeyrac happened to pass along the Rue
Mouffetard, accompanied by Bossuet. The snow was thicker than ever, and
filled the air, and Bossuet had just said to Courfeyrac,--
"To see all these flakes of snow fall, we might, say that the sky is
suffering from a plague of white butterflies."
All at once Bossuet noticed Marius coming up the street toward the
barrière with a peculiar look.
"Hilloh!" said Bossuet, "there's Marius."
"I saw him," said Courfeyrac; "but we won't speak to him."
"Why not?"
"He is busy."
"At what?"
"Do you not see that he looks as if he were following some one?"
"That is true," said Bossuet.
"Only see what eyes he makes!" Courfeyrac added.
"But whom the deuce is he following?"
"Some Mimi-Goton with flowers in her cap. He is in love."
"But," Bossuet observed, "I do not see any Mimi or any Goton, or any
cap trimmed with flowers, in the street. There is not a single woman."
Courfeyrac looked, and exclaimed, "He is following a man."
A man wearing a cap, and whose gray beard could be distinguished,
although his back was turned, was walking about twenty yards ahead of
Marius. This man was dressed in a perfectly new great-coat, which was
too large for him, and a frightful pair of ragged trousers all black
with mud. Bossuet burst into a laugh.
"Who can the man be?"
"That?" Courfeyrac replied; "oh, he is a poet. Poets are fond of
wearing the trousers of rabbit-skin pedlers and the coats of the Peers
of France."
"Let us see where Marius is going," said Bossuet, "and where this man
is going. Suppose we follow them, eh?"
"Bossuet!" Courfeyrac exclaimed, "Eagle of Meaux, you are a prodigious
brute to think of following a man who is following a man."
They turned back. Marius had really seen Jondrette in the Rue
Mouffetard, and was following him. Jondrette was walking along, not
at all suspecting that an eye was already fixed upon him. He left
the Rue Mouffetard, and Marius saw him enter one of the most hideous
lodging-houses in the Rue Gracieuse, where he remained for about a
quarter of an hour, and then returned to the Rue Mouffetard. He stopped
at an ironmonger's shop, which was at that period at the corner of
the Rue Pierre-Lombard; and a few minutes after Marius saw him come
out of the shop, holding a large cold-chisel set in a wooden handle,
which he hid under his great coat. He then turned to his left and
hurried toward the Rue du Petit Banquier. Day was dying; the snow,
which had ceased for a moment, had begun again, and Marius concealed
himself at the corner of the Rue du Petit Banquier, which was deserted
as usual, and did not follow Jondrette. It was lucky that he acted
thus, for Jondrette, on reaching the spot where Marius had listened to
the conversation of the hairy man and the bearded man, looked round,
made sure that he was not followed, clambered over the wall, and
disappeared. The unused ground which this wall enclosed communicated
with the back yard of a livery-stable-keeper of bad repute, who had
been a bankrupt, and still had a few vehicles standing under sheds.
Marius thought it would be as well to take advantage of Jondrette's
absence and return home. Besides, time was slipping away, and every
evening Mame Bougon, when she went to wash up dishes in town, was
accustomed to close the gate, and, as Marius had given his latch-key to
the Inspector, it was important that he should be in time. Night had
nearly set in along the whole horizon, and in the whole immensity there
was only one point still illumined by the sun, and that was the moon,
which was rising red behind the low dome of the Salpêtrière. Marius
hurried to No. 50-52, and the gate was still open when he arrived. He
went up the stairs on tip-toe, and glided along the passage-wall to
his room. This passage, it will be remembered, was bordered on either
side by rooms which were now to let, and Mame Bougon, as a general
rule, left the doors open. While passing one of these doors, Marius
fancied that he could see in the uninhabited room four men's heads
vaguely lit up by a remnant of daylight which fell through a window.
Marius did not attempt to see, as he did not wish to be seen himself;
and he managed to re-enter his room noiselessly and unseen. It was
high time, for a moment after he heard Mame Bougon going out, and the
house-gate shutting.