|
DIVRS CLAPS OF THUNDER FALL ON MA'AM BOUGON
On the following day, Ma'am Bougon, as Courfeyrac styled the
old portress-principal-tenant, housekeeper of the Gorbeau hovel,
Ma'am Bougon, whose name was, in reality, Madame Burgon, as we
have found out, but this iconoclast, Courfeyrac, respected nothing,--
Ma'am Bougon observed, with stupefaction, that M. Marius was going
out again in his new coat.
He went to the Luxembourg again, but he did not proceed further
than his bench midway of the alley.
He seated himself there, as on the preceding day, surveying
from a distance, and clearly making out, the white bonnet, the
black dress, and above all, that blue light. He did not stir from
it, and only went home when the gates of the Luxembourg closed.
He did not see M. Leblanc and his daughter retire. He concluded
that they had quitted the garden by the gate on the Rue de l'Ouest.
Later on, several weeks afterwards, when he came to think it over,
he could never recall where he had dined that evening.
On the following day, which was the third, Ma'am Bougon was
thunderstruck.
Marius went out in his new coat. "Three days in succession!"
she exclaimed.
She tried to follow him, but Marius walked briskly, and with
immense strides; it was a hippopotamus undertaking the pursuit
of a chamois. She lost sight of him in two minutes, and returned
breathless, three-quarters choked with asthma, and furious.
"If there is any sense," she growled, "in putting
on one's best clothes every day, and making people run like this!"
Marius betook himself to the Luxembourg.
The young girl was there with M. Leblanc.
Marius approached as near as he could, pretending to be busy
reading a book, but he halted afar off, then returned and seated
himself on his bench, where he spent four hours in watching the
house-sparrows who were skipping about the walk, and who produced
on him the impression that they were making sport of him.
A fortnight passed thus.
Marius went to the Luxembourg no longer for the sake of strolling
there, but to seat himself always in the same spot, and that without
knowing why.
Once arrived there, he did not stir.
He put on his new coat every morning, for the purpose of not
showing himself, and he began all over again on the morrow.
She was decidedly a marvellous beauty.
The only remark approaching a criticism, that could be made,
was, that the contradiction between her gaze, which was melancholy,
and her smile, which was merry, gave a rather wild effect to her
face, which sometimes caused this sweet countenance to become
strange without ceasing to be charming.
|
