Chapter 104 ten self-defeating

Madame Thenardier, as usual, left her husband in charge.She was waiting for something big to happen.It was a quarter of an hour after the man had left with Cosette before Thenardier took her aside and showed her the fifteen hundred francs. "That's it!" she said. It was the first time she had dared to take critical action against the parents since they started the family. The provocation worked. "Indeed, you are right," said he, "I am a fool. Go and get my hat." He folded the three bank notes, put them in the bottom of his pocket, and hurried out the door, but he got it wrong and turned to the right.He found out the way after asking several neighbors, and the lark and the man were seen walking towards Livery.He accepted the guidance of these people, and he was talking to himself while striding forward.

"The man was clearly a millionaire, though in yellow, and I, a brute. First he gave twenty sous, then five francs, then fifty francs, then another Fifteen hundred francs, don't care. He might give fifteen thousand francs. I'll go after him." And the bag that was prepared for the little girl in advance, all of this is very strange, there must be many secrets here.We should not let go of our hold on the secret.The secret of a rich man is a sponge soaked in gold juice, one should know how to squeeze it.All these thoughts swirl in his head. "I'm a beast," he said.

Leaving Montfermeil, at the fork of the road to Livery, one can see that the road continues to a great distance on the plateau.When he reached the fork in the road, he probably could see the man and the little girl.He looked as far as his eyes could see, but saw nothing.He asked others again.This is a waste of time.Some passers-by told him that the man and the boy he was looking for had gone off into the woods on the Garni side.He rushed in that direction. They were walking in front of him, but the boy walked slowly and he walked quickly.And this place is very familiar to him. He suddenly stopped and patted his forehead, like a person who forgot something very important and wanted to turn around and go back to get it.

"I should have come with my musket!" he said to himself. Thenardier was one of those dual characters that sometimes slips among us without being discovered.There are many people who live their lives in that half-light.Thénardier, in a stable and ordinary environment, can be a person-we don't say "yes"-a person who can be called an honest businessman and a good gentleman.At the same time, he is perfectly capable of being a thug under certain circumstances, when certain dynamics touch his hidden nature.This is a magical little businessman.Satan occasionally squatted in a corner of the hut where Thenardier lived and dreamed sweet dreams of this hideous representative.

After hesitating for a while, he thought: "Hmm! They may have had enough time to escape!" He continued on his way, running fast, almost sure, with the quickness of a fox hunting a partridge by scent. Sure enough, when he had walked across the pond, crossed the large open space on the right side of the Avenue of Views from the slant, and came to the culvert of the ancient canal with shallow grass, which almost surrounded the mound and extended to the Schell Abbey. When he was walking up the path, he suddenly saw a hat protruding from the bushes. He had already raised many doubts about this hat, and it was indeed that person's hat.That jungle is not high.Thenardier thought that the man and Cosette were sitting there.He couldn't see the child because she was small, but he could see the doll's head.

Thenardier was not mistaken.The man did sit there, so that Cosette could rest.The innkeeper walked around the bushes and suddenly appeared in front of the two people he was looking for. "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, panting, "here is fifteen hundred francs of yours." So saying, he held out the three bills to the stranger at the same time. The man raised his eyes. "What does it mean?" Thenardier replied respectfully: "Monsieur, that means that I will take Cosette back." Cosette shuddered all over, and leaned against the old man's arms.

And he, looking directly into Thenardier's eyes, answered every word: "You--will--take--Cosette--back--to-go?" "Yes, sir, I'm taking her back. I'll tell you. I've thought about it. In fact, I have no right to send her to you. I'm an honest man, you know. The little girl is not me. Yes, it's her mother. Her mother entrusted her to me, and I can only give her back to her mother. You will say to me: 'But her mother is dead.' Well. In this case, I will The child can only be delivered to a man with a letter signed by her mother stating that I should deliver the child to him. That is obvious."

The man, without answering, put his hand into his pocket, and Thenardier saw before him again the wallet containing the money. The innkeeper was so happy that he was soft all over. "Okay!" he thought to himself, "stand firm. He's coming to corrupt me!" The stranger looked around before opening the wallet.The place is absolutely desolate.There was no one in the woods or in the valley.The man opened the wallet, but what he drew from it was not the wad of notes that Thenardier had expected, but a simple piece of paper, which he opened whole, and presented to the innkeeper. look and say:

"You have a point. Read it." Thenardier took the paper and read: "You recognize the signature?" said the man again. It was indeed Fantine's signature.Thenardier also recognized it. There is nothing to refute.He felt two strong hatreds, hating that he had to give up the corruption of his original expectations, and hating himself for being defeated.The man said again: "You can leave this piece of paper, so that you can shirk your responsibility." Thenardier retreated, but his order was not disordered. "The signature is imitated fairly well," he muttered through clenched teeth, "but let it be!"

Then he tried a hopeless struggle. "Sir," he said, "that's very well. You are here. But I must pay all the odds and ends. It's a lot." The man stood up, flicking the dust off his frayed sleeves with his middle finger, and said: "Monsieur Thenardier, her mother calculated that she owed you one hundred and twenty francs in January, and you sent her a bill for five hundred francs in mid-February; Received 300 francs. After that, the amount was fixed, 15 francs a month, so nine months later, the total was 135 francs. You charged 100 francs before, and we only owe you 35 francs. Francs, I gave you fifteen hundred francs just now."

Thenardier felt what the jackal feels when he is gripped by the steel teeth of the trap. "What the hell is this man?" he thought to himself. He acted like a jackal.He shook his body.He had once achieved success by brute force. This time, he put aside his respectful appearance, and said firmly: "Monsieur No-No-Name, I must bring back Cosette, unless you give me another thousand crowns." The stranger said calmly: "Come, Cosette." He led Cosette with his left hand, and picked up his club from the ground with his right. Thenardier looked at the huge club and the desolate place. The man led Cosette deep into the woods, leaving the stupefied innkeeper aside. As they walked further and further away, Thenardier kept looking at his broad, somewhat stooped shoulders and his two great fists. Then he turned his eyes back to himself, at his dry arms and his thin hands. "How foolish I am," thought he, "for not having brought my long gun with me when I went hunting!" But the innkeeper refused to give up. "I want to know where he's going," he said.So he followed them at a distance.He held only two things in his hand, the satire, the torn paper signed by Fantine, and the consolation, the fifteen hundred francs. The man led Cosette towards Livery and Bundy.He walked slowly with his head down, a gesture that suggested he was using his mind and feeling sad.After the winter, the vegetation was withered and sparse, so that Thénardier could not lose sight of them, although they were quite far away.The man turned his head from time to time to see if anyone was following him.Suddenly he caught sight of Thenardier.He hastily led Cosette into the bushes, and at once they both disappeared. "Damn!" said Thenardier.He stepped forward to chase. The density of the trees forced him to move closer to them.The man walked to the place where the branches were densest and turned around.It was in vain for Thenardier to hide himself among the branches; there was nothing he could do to keep him from seeing it.The man gave him a wary look, shook his head, and walked forward.The innkeeper still followed him.Suddenly, the man turned around again.He saw the innkeeper again.He looked so gloomy this time, that Thenardier found it "inconvenient" to follow him.Thenardier turned and went home.