Chapter 176 Seven short sarongs

We mentioned a spearman. It was a great-nephew of M. Gillenormand, who had always been away from his family and was living in a barracks.This Lieutenant Theodule Gillenormand had all the makings of what is called a handsome officer.He has a "lady's waist", an unrestrained demeanor of dragging a command knife, and an upturned beard.He rarely came to Paris, and Marius never saw him.The two cousins ​​knew each other only by name.We seem to have mentioned that Theodule was the one whom Aunt Gillenormand loved dearly, and she loved him because she could not see him.If you can't see it with your eyes, you will imagine countless advantages to that person in your heart.

One morning, Aunt Gillenormand returned to her room with the utmost composure, suppressing her agitation.Marius had just asked his grandfather to let him go on a short trip, and said he planned to start that evening.The grandfather replied: "Go!" Then M. Gillenormand turned his back, raised his eyebrows high on his forehead, and said: "He sleeps out, and he doesn't do it again." Miss Gillenormand Back in her room, she couldn't feel at ease, and went to the stairs again, she said harshly: "It's too much." Then she asked: "Where is he going? "She seems to have glimpsed some kind of hidden activity in his heart that can't be said clearly, a woman who is half hidden, a tryst, a secret agreement, if she can take a closer look with glasses, that would not be bad.Spying on secrets is like tasting something new for the first time.A holy soul never abhors this taste.In the depths of pious and reverent hearts, there is often a curiosity to spy on people's privacy.

So she was captured by a slight hunger to find out. The excitement caused by this curiosity was a little outside her usual routine.To amuse herself, she devoted herself to her craft, and she began to cut out layers of cotton, and to patchwork and embroider the many wheel-shaped ornaments which had prevailed in the Empire and Restoration periods.Work is boring, workers are irritable.She had been sitting in her chair for hours when the door of the room opened suddenly.Mademoiselle Gillenormand raised her nose, and Lieutenant Theodule stood before her, saluting her.She let out a cry of happiness.An old man, always shy and pious, and an aunt, she was always glad to see a dragoon enter her sewing room.

"Here you are!" she yelled. "I was passing here, my aunt." "Hug me now." "Yes!" said Theodule. He stepped forward and hugged her.Aunt Gillenormand went to her desk and opened a drawer. "You're going to stay with us for a whole week at least?" "Auntie, I have to go tonight." "Nonsense!" "It's not wrong at all." "Stay, my little Theodule, I beg you." "My heart wants to stay, but the order does not allow it. It is very simple. We change defenses. We used to be stationed in Melun, but now we are transferred to Garon. From the old defense to the new defense, we have to go through Paris. I said , I'm going to see my aunt."

"This small point compensates for your loss." She put ten louis in his palm. "You mean to say it was to please me, dear aunt." Theodule hugged her again, and she felt a pang of pleasure because her neck was slightly scratched by the edge of the gold thread on his military uniform. "Are you setting off with a party on horseback?" she asked him. "No, my aunt, I've made up my mind to come and see you. I've been given special care. My orderly has gone away with my horse, and I'm going by the stagecoach. At this point, I think of asking you something." Stuff."

"What's up?" "My cousin, Marius Pontmercy, is he going on a journey too?" "How do you know?" said his aunt, and her curiosity was suddenly scratched at the most itchy place. "When I came here, I went to the coach station and booked a front compartment seat." "and after?" "A passenger has reserved a seat on the roof. I see his name on the passenger manifest." "what name?" "Marius Pontmercy." "The rascal!" cried the aunt. "Ha! Your cousin isn't such an orderly boy as you are. What's the point of spending the night in a stagecoach!"

"like me." "You, that's for the task, and he, it's just for messing around." "No idea!" said Theodule. At this point, Miss Gillenormand felt that she had something to do, and she had an idea.If she had been a man, she would have slapped herself on the forehead.She hurriedly asked Theodule: "Do you know your cousin doesn't know you?" "I don't know, I've seen him, me, but he never paid attention to me." "Aren't you going to drive in the same car?" "He sat on the roof and I sat in the front compartment."

"Where does the stagecoach go?" "To Lysandry." "Is Marius going there?" "Unless he gets off on the way like I did. I'm going to change at Vernon for Garon. I don't know the route of Marius." "Marius! What an ugly name! How could anyone think of calling him Marius! And you, at least, are called Theodule!" "I don't think it sounds as good as Alfred," said the officer. "Listen to me, Theodule." "I am listening, my aunt." "Attention." "I paid attention." "Ready?"

"Ready." "Well, Marius doesn't come home very often." "Hi hi!" "He travels a lot." "Ah!" "He often spends the night out." "hehe!" "We'd love to know what's in there." Theodule replied with the composure of a man of experience: "It's nothing more than a pair of short sarongs." And then with that reserved laugh of self-confidence, he said: "Just a bunch of little girls." "Obviously so," said the aunt excitedly. She thought she heard M. Gillenormand talking, and whether it was the uncle or the grandnephew, when they talked about the little girl, the tone was almost exactly the same, so her opinion It was formed irresistibly.She went on to say:

"You must do us a happy thing. You follow Marius. He does not know you, and you will have no difficulty. Since there is a little girl here, do your best to see her, and write a letter back to tell the little girl." Little stories to tell us, to make him happy outside." Theodule did not take much interest in spying of this nature, but he was moved by the ten louis, and felt that there might be future benefits of this kind.He accepted the task, saying: "Do as you please, my aunt." Then he said to himself: "Now I am an old nurse." Mademoiselle Gillenormand kissed him, and said:

"Theodule, you would never do this, you are disciplined, you are a slave to the gate system, you are a law-abiding man, you will never leave your home to find such a thing of." The dragoon made a smug face, just as Cartouche heard others praise him for his self-denial and law-abiding. On the evening of this conversation, Marius got into the coach, never suspecting that he was being watched.As for the Watcher, the first thing he did was sleep.This is the real sound sleep of the venue.Argus snored all night. At dawn, the steward of the stagecoach shouted: "Vernon! Vernon Station is here! Passengers to Vernon get off!" Lieutenant Theodule woke up. "Okay," he murmured, still half asleep, "I have to get off here." Then, step by step, his memory became clearer, the effect of waking up, and he thought of his aunt, and the ten Louis, and the promise to report on what Marius had done.It all made him feel ridiculous. "Perhaps he's not in this car anymore," he thought, buttoning up his little military uniform. "He might have stayed in Poissy, he might have stayed in Telliers, he might have gotten off at Mount if he hadn't got off at Meurans, unless he got off at Rorpoas, or As far as Passy, ​​from there you can go to Evreux on the left, and La Roche-Guéron on the right. Go after me, my aunt. What the hell am I going to write to her, to that good old woman? ?” At this moment, a pair of black trousers came down from the roof and appeared on the glass window of the front compartment. "Perhaps this is Marius?" said the lieutenant. That was Marius. A little country girl, standing under the car, mixed with a group of horses and grooms, peddled flowers to the passengers: "Bring some flowers for the ladies." Marius went up to her and bought the most beautiful bouquet that she had on her tray. "Now," said Theodule, jumping down from the front carriage, "I'm excited. What the hell is he going to give these flowers to? Only a very beautiful woman deserves one." Such a wonderful bunch of flowers. I must go and see her." Now, not by entrustment, but out of his own curiosity, he began to follow Marius, like dogs that follow for their own benefit. Marius paid no attention to Theodule.Some richly dressed women stepped out of the stagecoach, and he didn't look at it, as if he didn't notice anything around him. "He is so in love!" thought Theodule. Marius walked towards the chapel. "Excellent," said Theodule to himself. "House of worship! Yes. A lover's rendezvous, with a touch of religion, that's sweet. There's nothing sweeter than looking through a merciful God." When Marius reached the chapel, instead of going inside, he went around the aisle, and disappeared at the corner of the rear wall. "The rendezvous is outside," said Theodule, "and the little girl can be seen." He walked on tiptoe of his boots towards the corner where Marius turned.When he got there, he was startled and stopped still. Marius, with his forehead in his hands, was kneeling in the grass in front of a grave.He has scattered the petals of the cluster of flowers on the grave.At the raised end of the tomb, where the dead man's head had been, was a wooden cross with the inscription "Colonel-Baron Pontmercy."Marius was weeping bitterly. That "little girl" is just a grave.