CHAPTER IX--JONDRETTE COMES NEAR WEEPING

  The hovel was so dark, that people coming from without felt on enteringit the effect produced on entering a cellar. The two new-comersadvanced, therefore, with a certain hesitation, being hardly ableto distinguish the vague forms surrounding them, while they could beclearly seen and scrutinized by the eyes of the inhabitants of thegarret, who were accustomed to this twilight.

  M. Leblanc approached, with his sad but kindly look, and said toJondrette the father:--

  "Monsieur, in this package you will find some new clothes and somewoollen stockings and blankets."

  "Our angelic benefactor overwhelms us," said Jondrette, bowing to thevery earth.

  Then, bending down to the ear of his eldest daughter, while the twovisitors were engaged in examining this lamentable interior, he added ina low and rapid voice:--

  "Hey? What did I say? Duds! No money! They are all alike! By the way,how was the letter to that old blockhead signed?"

  "Fabantou," replied the girl.

  "The dramatic artist, good!"

  It was lucky for Jondrette, that this had occurred to him, for at thevery moment, M. Leblanc turned to him, and said to him with the air of aperson who is seeking to recall a name:--

  "I see that you are greatly to be pitied, Monsieur--"

  "Fabantou," replied Jondrette quickly.

  "Monsieur Fabantou, yes, that is it. I remember."

  "Dramatic artist, sir, and one who has had some success."

  Here Jondrette evidently judged the moment propitious for capturing the"philanthropist." He exclaimed with an accent which smacked at the sametime of the vainglory of the mountebank at fairs, and the humility ofthe mendicant on the highway:--

  "A pupil of Talma! Sir! I am a pupil of Talma! Fortune formerly smiledon me--Alas! Now it is misfortune's turn. You see, my benefactor, nobread, no fire. My poor babes have no fire! My only chair has no seat! Abroken pane! And in such weather! My spouse in bed! Ill!"

  "Poor woman!" said M. Leblanc.

  "My child wounded!" added Jondrette.

  The child, diverted by the arrival of the strangers, had fallen tocontemplating "the young lady," and had ceased to sob.

  "Cry! bawl!" said Jondrette to her in a low voice.

  At the same time he pinched her sore hand. All this was done with thetalent of a juggler.

  The little girl gave vent to loud shrieks.

  The adorable young girl, whom Marius, in his heart, called "his Ursule,"approached her hastily.

  "Poor, dear child!" said she.

  "You see, my beautiful young lady," pursued Jondrette "her bleedingwrist! It came through an accident while working at a machine to earnsix sous a day. It may be necessary to cut off her arm."

  "Really?" said the old gentleman, in alarm.

  The little girl, taking this seriously, fell to sobbing more violentlythan ever.

  "Alas! yes, my benefactor!" replied the father.

  For several minutes, Jondrette had been scrutinizing "the benefactor"in a singular fashion. As he spoke, he seemed to be examining the otherattentively, as though seeking to summon up his recollections. All atonce, profiting by a moment when the new-comers were questioning thechild with interest as to her injured hand, he passed near his wife,who lay in her bed with a stupid and dejected air, and said to her in arapid but very low tone:--

  "Take a look at that man!"

  Then, turning to M. Leblanc, and continuing his lamentations:--

  "You see, sir! All the clothing that I have is my wife's chemise! Andall torn at that! In the depths of winter! I can't go out for lack of acoat. If I had a coat of any sort, I would go and see Mademoiselle Mars,who knows me and is very fond of me. Does she not still reside in theRue de la Tour-des-Dames? Do you know, sir? We played together in theprovinces. I shared her laurels. Célimène would come to my succor, sir!Elmire would bestow alms on Bélisaire! But no, nothing! And not a sou inthe house! My wife ill, and not a sou! My daughter dangerously injured,not a sou! My wife suffers from fits of suffocation. It comes from herage, and besides, her nervous system is affected. She ought to haveassistance, and my daughter also! But the doctor! But the apothecary!How am I to pay them? I would kneel to a penny, sir! Such is thecondition to which the arts are reduced. And do you know, my charmingyoung lady, and you, my generous protector, do you know, you who breatheforth virtue and goodness, and who perfume that church where my daughtersees you every day when she says her prayers?--For I have brought up mychildren religiously, sir. I did not want them to take to the theatre.Ah! the hussies! If I catch them tripping! I do not jest, that I don't!I read them lessons on honor, on morality, on virtue! Ask them! Theyhave got to walk straight. They are none of your unhappy wretches whobegin by having no family, and end by espousing the public. One isMamselle Nobody, and one becomes Madame Everybody. Deuce take it! Noneof that in the Fabantou family! I mean to bring them up virtuously, andthey shall be honest, and nice, and believe in God, by the sacred name!Well, sir, my worthy sir, do you know what is going to happen to-morrow?To-morrow is the fourth day of February, the fatal day, the last day ofgrace allowed me by my landlord; if by this evening I have not paid myrent, to-morrow my oldest daughter, my spouse with her fever, my childwith her wound,--we shall all four be turned out of here and thrown intothe street, on the boulevard, without shelter, in the rain, in the snow.There, sir. I owe for four quarters--a whole year! that is to say, sixtyfrancs."

  Jondrette lied. Four quarters would have amounted to only forty francs,and he could not owe four, because six months had not elapsed sinceMarius had paid for two.

  M. Leblanc drew five francs from his pocket and threw them on the table.

  Jondrette found time to mutter in the ear of his eldest daughter:--

  "The scoundrel! What does he think I can do with his five francs?That won't pay me for my chair and pane of glass! That's what comes ofincurring expenses!"

  In the meanwhile, M. Leblanc had removed the large brown great-coatwhich he wore over his blue coat, and had thrown it over the back of thechair.

  "Monsieur Fabantou," he said, "these five francs are all that I haveabout me, but I shall now take my daughter home, and I will return thisevening,--it is this evening that you must pay, is it not?"

  Jondrette's face lighted up with a strange expression. He repliedvivaciously:--

  "Yes, respected sir. At eight o'clock, I must be at my landlord's."

  "I will be here at six, and I will fetch you the sixty francs."

  "My benefactor!" exclaimed Jondrette, overwhelmed. And he added, in alow tone: "Take a good look at him, wife!"

  M. Leblanc had taken the arm of the young girl, once more, and hadturned towards the door.

  "Farewell until this evening, my friends!" said he.

  "Six o'clock?" said Jondrette.

  "Six o'clock precisely."

  At that moment, the overcoat lying on the chair caught the eye of theelder Jondrette girl.

  "You are forgetting your coat, sir," said she.

  Jondrette darted an annihilating look at his daughter, accompanied by aformidable shrug of the shoulders.

  M. Leblanc turned back and said, with a smile:--

  "I have not forgotten it, I am leaving it."

  "O my protector!" said Jondrette, "my august benefactor, I melt intotears! Permit me to accompany you to your carriage."

  "If you come out," answered M. Leblanc, "put on this coat. It really isvery cold."

  Jondrette did not need to be told twice. He hastily donned the browngreat-coat. And all three went out, Jondrette preceding the twostrangers.