Chapter 185 Two marius lives in poverty

Poverty is like everything else.It can become natural from habit.Over time, it takes shape and stabilizes.People cut down on food and clothing, that is, they grow up in a poor way that is just enough to maintain their lives.Let us see how the life of Marius Pontmerche was arranged: He walked out of the narrowest road, and saw that the narrow road gradually widened.With industry, vigor, perseverance, and determination, he managed to earn about seven hundred francs a year from his work.He learned German and English, Courfeyrac introduced him to his friend who owned a bookstore, and Marius became a humble but useful man in the literary department of that bookstore.He wrote book reviews, translated newspaper materials, made annotations, compiled some people's life stories, and so on.Regardless of the prosperous year or the poor year, the net gain is seven hundred francs.He lives by it.How did it go?Not a bad day.Let's talk.

For thirty francs a year at the old house in Gorbeau, Marius occupied a shabby, unfired room called an office, furnished only with necessary furniture.The furniture is his own.He paid the old landlady three francs a month to clean the house, and to bring him some hot water, a fresh egg, and a sou of bread every morning.This bread and eggs were his lunch.Lunch cost two to four sous, according to the price of eggs.At six o'clock in the evening he went down the Rue Saint-Jacques to dine at Rousseau's restaurant, opposite the engraving and printing shop of Bassai, on the corner of the Rue Mathurin.He doesn't drink soup.He ate a six-sou plate of meat, a half-plate of vegetables for three sous, and a dessert for three sous.Add another three sous of bread.As for wine, he substituted boiled water.Sitting on the counter was Mrs. Rousseau, who was still plump and fresh at the time. When paying the bill, he gave the waiter a sou, and Mrs. Rousseau smiled at him.Then he left.For sixteen sous he would get a smile and a supper.

In Rousseau's there are so few empty wine bottles and so many empty water bottles that it seems to be a place of rest rather than sustenance.It doesn't exist today.The boss has a beautiful nickname, people call him "Aqua Rousseau". Therefore, at four sous for lunch and sixteen for dinner, he spent twenty sous a day on food; three hundred and sixty-five francs a year.Add thirty francs for the rent, thirty-six francs for the old woman, and a little allowance, for a total of four hundred and fifty francs, and Marius was fed, housed, and attended.Clothes cost him a hundred francs, a change of clothes fifty francs, laundry fifty francs.Not to exceed six hundred and fifty francs in all.Fifty francs left.He is richer.He could sometimes lend ten francs to friends, and once Courfeyrac borrowed sixty francs from him.As for heating, since there was no fireplace, Marius "simplified" this item.

Marius always had two sets of outer clothes, an old one for ordinary wear and a new one for special purposes.Both sets are all black.He had only three shirts, one on his body, one in the drawer, and one in the washerwoman's.When worn out, he replenished.The shirts were often torn, so he always buttoned his jacket up to his chin. It took several years for Marius to reach this state of opulence.These years have been hard and difficult, some have been passed, and some have been survived.Marius never lost heart for a single day.He has experienced all kinds of embarrassments, and he has done everything except borrowing money.He asked himself that he had never owed anyone a sou.He felt that debt was the beginning of slavery.He even thinks that the creditor is more terrible than the slave owner, because the slave owner can only possess your body, but the creditor possesses your dignity and can hurt your dignity.He would rather not eat than borrow money.There have been times when he has not eaten all day.He feels that everything in the world is inherited one by one, and the lack of material can lead to the degeneration of the soul, so he defends his self-esteem with hatred and hatred.On other and different occasions, he cheers up when some custom or some behavior debases or makes him feel mean.He doesn't take chances in everything, because he doesn't want to go back.There was always an indescribable shyness on his face.He was shy to the point of recklessness.

In the various trials he was subjected to, he felt a secret power within him that encouraged him, and sometimes even moved him.The soul supports the body, and in some moments even supports it.This is the only bird that can tolerate a cage. Alongside his father's name was inscribed in Marius another name: Thenardier.Marius, who was of a serious and earnest nature, imagined in his thoughts that the brave sergeant who had saved the colonel from shells and bullets at Waterloo was his father's benefactor, and so often in his imagination circled a halo around the man. overhead.He never separated the remembrance of the man from the remembrance of his father, he merged the two in his reverence.It seemed to be a kind of two-level cult, the large niche for the colonel, and the small niche for Thenardier.He knew that Thenardier was in adversity, and every time he thought of it, his grateful heart became more sad.Marius had heard at Montfermeil of the loss and bankruptcy of the unfortunate innkeeper.From then on he made an unprecedented effort to trace him, to reach him in the dark abyss that engulfed Thenardier.Marius traveled all over that part of the country; he visited Sierre, Bondy, Cournay, Nogent, and Lagny.For three years he spent all the little money he had saved on this tenacious quest.No one could bring him news of Thenardier, and it was believed that he had gone abroad.His creditors were also looking for him, less adoring than Marius, more obstinate than Marius, and could not catch him.Unable to find out, Marius blamed himself, almost hated himself.This was the only unfinished business left to him by the colonel, and he would be ashamed to be a son of man if it was not done. "Why!" he thought, "when my father lay dying on the battlefield, he, Thenardier, knew to find him out of the smoke and bombs, to carry him on his shoulders, when he owed him nothing A little something, and I, who have such a great favor to repay Thenardier, I can't meet him in his moaning plight, let me also rescue him from death! Ah! I must I can find him!" Marius would indeed have sacrificed his arm to find Thenardier, and indeed he would have shed his blood to rescue him from his misery.Meet Thenardier, do anything for Thenardier and say to him: "It doesn't matter that you don't know me, but I do know you! Here I am! Tell me what I should do!" It was the sweetest and brightest dream of Marius.