10
WHO SEEKS THE BEST MAY FIND THE WORST
THE THÉNARDIESS, according to her custom, had left her husband alone. She was expecting great events. When the man and Cosette were gone, Thénardier, after a good quarter of an hour, took her aside, and showed her the fifteen hundred francs.
“Is that all?” said she.
It was the first time, since the beginning of their living together, that she had dared to criticise the act of her master.
He felt the blow.
“True you are right,” said he; “I am a fool. Give me my hat.”
He folded the three banknotes, thrust them into his pocket, and started in all haste, but he missed the direction and took the road to the right. Some neighbours of whom he inquired put him on the track; the Lark and the man had been seen to go in the direction of Livry. He followed this indication, walking rapidly and talking to himself.
“This man is evidently a millionaire dressed in yellow, and as for me, I am an idiot. He first gave twenty sous, then five francs, then fifty francs, then fifteen hundred francs, all so readily. He would have given fifteen thousand francs. But I shall catch him.”
And then this bundle of clothes, made ready beforehand for the little girl; all that was strange, there was a good deal of mystery under it. When one gets hold of a mystery, he does not let go of it. The secrets of the rich are sponges full of gold; a man ought to know how to squeeze them. All these thoughts were whirling in his brain. “I am an idiot,” said he.
On leaving Montfermeil and reaching the turn made by the road to Livry, the road may be seen for a long distance on the plateau. On reaching this point he counted on being able to see the man and the little girl. He looked as far as his eye could reach, but saw nothing. He inquired again. In the meanwhile he was losing time. The passers-by told him that the man and child whom he sought had travelled towards the wood in the direction of Gagny. He hastened in this direction.
They had the start of him, but a child walks slowly, and he went rapidly. And then the country was well known to him.
Suddenly he stopped and struck his forehead like a man who has forgotten the main thing, and who thinks of retracing his steps.
“I ought to have taken my gun!” said he.
Thénardier was one of those double natures who sometimes appear among us without our knowledge, and disappear without ever being known, because destiny has shown us but one side of them. It is the fate of many men to live thus half submerged. In a quiet ordinary situation, Thénardier had all that is necessary to make—we do not say to be—what passes for an honest tradesman, a good citizen. At the same time, under certain circumstances, under the operation of certain occurrences exciting his baser nature, he had in him all that was necessary to be a villain. He was a shopkeeper in which lay hidden a monster. At times, Satan must have squatted in some corner of the hole in which Thénardier lived and daydreamed at the spectacle of this hideous masterpiece.
After hesitating an instant:
“Bah!” thought he, “they would have time to escape!”
And he continued on his way, going rapidly forward, and almost as if he were certain, with the sagacity of the fox scenting a flock of partridges.
In fact, when he had passed the ponds, and crossed obliquely the large meadow at the right of the avenue de Bellevue, as he reached the grassy path which nearly encircles the hill, and which covers the arch of the old aqueduct of the abbey of Chelles, he perceived above a bush, the hat on which he had already built so many conjectures. It was the man’s hat. The bushes were low. Thénardier perceived that the man and Cosette were seated there. The child could not be seen, she was so short, but he could see the head of the doll.
Thénardier was not mistaken. The man had sat down there to give Cosette a little rest. The tavern-keeper turned aside the bushes, and suddenly appeared before the eyes of those whom he sought.
“Pardon me, excuse me, monsieur,” said he, all out of breath; “but here are your fifteen hundred francs.”
So saying, he held out the three bank bills to the stranger.
The man raised his eyes:
“What does that mean?”
Thénardier answered respectfully: “Monsieur, that means that I’m taking back Cosette.”
Cosette shuddered, and hugged close to the goodman.
He answered, looking Thénardier straight in the eye, and spacing his syllables.
“You‘re—taking—back—Cosette?”
“Yes, monsieur, I’m taking her back. I tell you I have thought it over. Indeed, I haven’t the right to give her to you. I am an honest man, you see. This little girl is not mine. She belongs to her mother. Her mother has confided her to me; I can only give her up to her mother. You will tell me: But her mother is dead. Well. In that case, I can only give up the child to a person who shall bring me a written order, signed by the mother, stating I should deliver the child to him. That is clear.”
The man, without answering, felt in his pocket, and Thénardier saw the pocket-book containing the bank bills reappear.
The tavern-keeper felt a thrill of joy.
“Good!” thought he; “hold on. He is going to bribe me!”
Before opening the pocket-book, the traveller cast a look about him. The place was entirely deserted. There was not a soul either in the wood, or in the valley. The man opened the pocket-book, and drew from it, not the handful of bankbills which Thénardier expected, but a little piece of paper, which he unfolded and presented open to the innkeeper, saying:
“You are right. Read that!”
Thénardier took the paper and read.
“M—sur M—, March 25,1823.
“Monsieur Thénardier:
“You will deliver Cosette to the bearer. He will settle all small debts.
“I have the honour to salute you with consideration.
FANTINE.”
“You know that signature?” replied the man.
It was indeed the signature of Fantine. Thénardier recognised it.
There was nothing to say. He felt doubly enraged, enraged at being compelled to give up the bribe which he hoped for, and enraged at being beaten. The man added:
“You can keep this paper as your receipt.”
Thénardier retreated in good order.
“This signature is very well imitated,” he grumbled between his teeth. “Well, so be it!”
Then he made a desperate effort.
“Monsieur,” said he, “it is all right. Then you are the person. But you must settle‘all small debts.’ There is a large amount due to me.”
The man rose to his feet, and said at the same time, snapping with his thumb and finger some dust from his threadbare sleeve:
“Monsieur Thénardier, in January the mother reckoned that she owed you a hundred and twenty francs; you sent her in February a memorandum of five hundred francs; you received three hundred francs at the end of February, and three hundred at the beginning of March. There has since elapsed nine months which, at fifteen francs per month, the price agreed upon, amounts to a hundred and thirty-five francs. You had received a hundred francs in advance. There remain thirty-five francs due you. I have just given you fifteen hundred francs.”
Thénardier felt what the wolf feels the moment when he finds himself seized and crushed by the steel jaws of the trap.
“What is this devil of a man?” thought he.
He did what the wolf does, he gave a spring. Audacity had succeeded with him once already.
“Monsieur-I-don‘t-know-your-name,” said he resolutely, and putting aside this time all show of respect. “I shall take back Cosette or you must give me a thousand crowns.”
bkThe stranger said quietly:
“Come, Cosette.”
He took Cosette with his left hand, and with the right picked up his staff, which was on the ground.
Thénardier noted the enormous size of the cudgel, and the solitude of the place.
The man disappeared in the wood with the child, leaving the tavern-keeper motionless and non-plussed.
As they walked away, Thénardier observed his broad shoulders, a little rounded, and his big fists.
Then his eyes fell back upon his own puny arms and thin hands. “I must have been a fool indeed,” thought he, “not to have brought my gun, as I was going on a hunt.”
However, the innkeeper did not abandon the pursuit.
“I must know where he goes,” said he; and he began to follow them at a distance. There remained two things in his possession, one a bitter mockery, the piece of paper signed Fantine, and the other a consolation, the fifteen hundred francs.
The man was leading Cosette in the direction of Livry and Bondy. He was walking slowly, his head bent down, in an attitude of reflection and sadness. The winter had bereft the wood of foliage, so that Thénardier did not lose sight of them, though remaining at a considerable distance behind. From time to time the man turned, and looked to see if he were followed. Suddenly he perceived Thénardier. He at once entered a coppice with Cosette, and both disappeared from sight. “The devil!” said Thénardier.And he redoubled his pace.
The density of the thicket compelled him to approach them. When the man reached the thickest part of the wood, he turned again. Thénardier had endeavoured to conceal himself in the branches in vain, he could not prevent the man from seeing him. The man cast an uneasy glance at him, then shook his head, and resumed his journey. The innkeeper again took up the pursuit. They walked thus two or three hundred paces. Suddenly the man turned again. He perceived the innkeeper. This time he looked at him so forbiddingly that Thénardier judged it “unprofitable” to go further. Thénardier went home.