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M. BAMATABOIS'S INACTIVITY
There is in all small towns, and there was at M. sur M. in
particular, a class of young men who nibble away an income of
fifteen hundred francs with the same air with which their prototypes
devour two hundred thousand francs a year in Paris.
These are beings of the great neuter species:
impotent men, parasites, cyphers, who have a little land,
a little folly, a little wit; who would be rustics in a drawing-room,
and who think themselves gentlemen in the dram-shop; who say,
"My fields, my peasants, my woods"; who hiss actresses
at the theatre to prove that they are persons of taste; quarrel
with the officers of the garrison to prove that they are men of
war; hunt, smoke, yawn, drink, smell of tobacco, play billiards,
stare at travellers as they descend from the diligence, live at
the cafe, dine at the inn, have a dog which eats the bones under
the table, and a mistress who eats the dishes on the table; who
stick at a sou, exaggerate the fashions, admire tragedy, despise
women, wear out their old boots, copy London through Paris, and
Paris through the medium of Pont-A-Mousson, grow old as dullards,
never work, serve no use, and do no great harm.
M. Felix Tholomyes, had he remained in his own province and
never beheld Paris, would have been one of these men.
If they were richer, one would say, "They are dandies;"
if they were poorer, one would say, "They are idlers."
They are simply men without employment.
Among these unemployed there are bores, the bored, dreamers,
and some knaves.
At that period a dandy was composed of a tall collar, a big
cravat, a watch with trinkets, three vests of different colors,
worn one on top of the other--the red and blue inside; of a short-waisted
olive coat, with a codfish tail, a double row of silver buttons
set close to each other and running up to the shoulder; and a
pair of trousers of a lighter shade of olive, ornamented on the
two seams with an indefinite, but always uneven, number of lines,
varying from one to eleven--a limit which was never exceeded.
Add to this, high shoes with little irons on the heels, a tall
hat with a narrow brim, hair worn in a tuft, an enormous cane,
and conversation set off by puns of Potier.
Over all, spurs and a mustache.
At that epoch mustaches indicated the bourgeois, and spurs
the pedestrian.
The provincial dandy wore the longest of spurs and the fiercest
of mustaches.
It was the period of the conflict of the republics of South
America with the King of Spain, of Bolivar against Morillo. Narrow-brimmed
hats were royalist, and were called morillos; liberals wore hats
with wide brims, which were called bolivars.
Eight or ten months, then, after that which is related in
the preceding pages, towards the first of January, 1823, on a
snowy evening, one of these dandies, one of these unemployed,
a "right thinker," for he wore a morillo, and was, moreover,
warmly enveloped in one of those large cloaks which completed
the fashionable costume in cold weather, was amusing himself by
tormenting a creature who was prowling about in a ball-dress,
with neck uncovered and flowers in her hair, in front of the officers'
cafe.
This dandy was smoking, for he was decidedly fashionable.
Each time that the woman passed in front of him, he bestowed
on her, together with a puff from his cigar, some apostrophe which
he considered witty and mirthful, such as, "How ugly you
are!-- Will you get out of my sight?--You have no teeth!"
etc., etc. This gentleman was known as M. Bamatabois.
The woman, a melancholy, decorated spectre which went and
came through the snow, made him no reply, did not even glance
at him, and nevertheless continued her promenade in silence, and
with a sombre regularity, which brought her every five minutes
within reach of this sarcasm, like the condemned soldier who returns
under the rods.
The small effect which he produced no doubt piqued the lounger;
and taking advantage of a moment when her back was turned, he
crept up behind her with the gait of a wolf, and stifling his
laugh, bent down, picked up a handful of snow from the pavement,
and thrust it abruptly into her back, between her bare shoulders.
The woman uttered a roar, whirled round, gave a leap like
a panther, and hurled herself upon the man, burying her nails
in his face, with the most frightful words which could fall from
the guard-room into the gutter.
These insults, poured forth in a voice roughened by brandy,
did, indeed, proceed in hideous wise from a mouth which lacked
its two front teeth. It was Fantine.
At the noise thus produced, the officers ran out in throngs
from the cafe, passers-by collected, and a large and merry circle,
hooting and applauding, was formed around this whirlwind composed
of two beings, whom there was some difficulty in recognizing as
a man and a woman:
the man struggling, his hat on the ground; the woman striking
out with feet and fists, bareheaded, howling, minus hair and teeth,
livid with wrath, horrible.
Suddenly a man of lofty stature emerged vivaciously from the
crowd, seized the woman by her satin bodice, which was covered
with mud, and said to her, "Follow me!"
The woman raised her head; her furious voice suddenly died
away. Her eyes were glassy; she turned pale instead of livid,
and she trembled with a quiver of terror.
She had recognized Javert.
The dandy took advantage of the incident to make his escape.
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