第 一百九十三 章 · DIVERS 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.