2.M.8.9. JONDRETTE COMES NEAR WEEPING
THE hovel was so dark, that people coming from without
felt on entering it the effect produced on entering a cellar.
The two new-comers advanced, therefore, with a certain
hesitation,
being hardly able to distinguish the vague forms surrounding
them, while they could be clearly seen and scrutinized
by the eyes of the inhabitants of the garret, who were
accustomed to this twilight.
M.Leblanc approached, with his sad but kindly look, and
said to Jondrette the father: —
"Monsieur, in this package you will find some new clothes
and some woollen stockings and blankets."
"Our angelic benefactor overwhelms us," said Jondrette,
bowing to the very earth.
Then, bending down to the ear of his eldest daughter,
while
the two visitors were engaged in examining this lamentable
interior, he added in a 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 the very moment, M. Leblanc turned to him, and said to
him with the air of a person 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 same time of the vainglory of the
mountebank at fairs, and the humility of the mendicant on the
highway: —
"A pupil of Talma! Sir! I am a pupil of Talma! Fortune
formerly smiled on me — Alas! Now it is misfortune's
turn. You see, my benefactor, no bread, no fire. My poor
babes have no fire! Mv only chair has no seat! A broken
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 to contemplating "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 the talent 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 bleeding wrist! It came through an accident while working
at a machine to earn six 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
violently than 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 other attentively, as though seeking to summon
up his recollections. All at once, profiting by a moment
when the new-comers were questioning the child 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 a rapid
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! And all torn at that! In the depths of winter! I
can't go out for lack of a coat. 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 the Rue de la
Tour-des-Dames? Do you know, sir? We played together in
the provinces. I shared her laurels. Celimene would come to
my succor, sir! Elmire would bestow alms on Belisaire! But
no, nothing! And not a sou in the 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 her
age, and besides, her nervous system is affected. She ought to
have assistance, 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 the condition to which the arts are reduced.
And do you know, my charming young lady, and you,
my generous protector, do you know, you who breathe forth
virtue and goodness, and who perfume that church where my
daughter sees you every day when she says her prayers? — For
I have brought up my children 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! They have got to
walk straight. They are none of your unhappy wretches who
begin by having no family, and end by espousing the public.
One is Mamselle Nobody, and one becomes Madame Everybody.
Deuce take it! None of that in the Fabantou family!
I mean to bring them up virtuously, and they 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 of grace allowed me by my landlord; if by this
evening I have not paid my rent, to-morrow my oldest daughter,
my spouse with her fever, my child with her wound, — we
shall all four be turned out of here and thrown into the 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, sixty francs."
Jondrette lied. Four quarters would have amounted to only
forty francs, and he could not owe four, because six months
had not elapsed since Marius 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 of incurring expenses!"
In the meanwhile, M. Leblanc had removed the large brown
great-coat which he wore over his blue coat, and had thrown it
over the back of the chair.
"Monsieur Fabantou," he said, "these five francs are all
that
I have about me, but I shall now take my daughter home, and I
will return this evening, — it is this evening that you must
pay,
is it not?"
Jondrette's face lighted up with a strange expression. He
replied vivaciously: —
"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 a low tone: "Take a good look at him, wife!"
M.Leblanc had taken the arm of the young girl, once more,
and had turned 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 the elder Jondrette girl.
"You are forgetting your coat, sir," said she.
Jondrette darted an annihilating look at his daughter,
accompanied
by a formidable 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 into tears! Permit me to accompany you to your carriage."
"If
you come out," answered M. Leblanc, "put on this coat.
It really is very cold."
Jondrette did not need to be told twice. He hastily
donned
the brown great-coat. And all three went out, Jondrette
preceding
the two strangers.