Chapter 220 Eighteen Marius' chairs facing each other

The melancholy sound of the bell suddenly came from a distance, shaking the glass on the window.St. Mita is knocking six. Jondrette counted the bells with his head and nodded each time they struck.After the sixth strike, he snuffed out the wick with his fingers. Then he walked up and down the room, listening to the passages, listening and walking and listening.He muttered, "If only he'd come!" and returned to his chair. He had just sat down when the door opened. Madame Jondrette opened the door, and left herself in the passage, her ugliness smiling from below through a hole in the shaded lamp.

"Come in, sir," she said. "Come in, my benefactor." Jondrette quickly stood up and said. Mr. Bai appeared. His demeanor was serene, which made him look strangely dignified and respectable. He took four louis and put them on the table. "Monsieur Fabondo," he said, "it's for your rent and contingencies. We'll talk about it later." "God bless you, my generous benefactor!" said Jondrette, and then hastening to his woman, said: "Send the carriage!" She backed away quietly.Her husband was extremely respectful and courteous in front of Mr. Bai, and asked him to sit down with a chair.After a while she came back and whispered in his ear:

"It's done." The snow, which had been falling since morning, was so thick that no one heard the carriage coming or going. At this time, Mr. Bai had already sat down. Jondrette took the chair opposite Mr. Bai. Now, in order to have an idea of ​​the future plot, I hope readers can imagine a cold night in their hearts. The desolate area around the women's workhouse is covered with snow, and in the moonlight, it is as white as a boundless funeral. Shrouds, sparse streetlights, reddening the gloomy roads and long rows of black elms, within a quarter of a mile, perhaps no one was walking, and Gorbo's old house was silent, dark, and eerie At last, in the old house, in the bleak darkness, there was only Jondrette's empty room, where a single candle was burning, and two men were sitting on either side of a table in this poor hut. , Mr. Bai looks serene, Jondrette has a sinister and terrifying smile, his woman, the she-wolf, stays in a corner of the room.Behind the partition, Marius was hidden, standing motionless, unmoved, not missing a word or movement, his eyes watching, his gun in his hand.

Marius was moved only by contempt, and was not intimidated.He gripped the handle of the gun tightly, full of confidence.He thought to himself: "This scoundrel, I can subdue him at any time." He also felt that the police were ambushing nearby, waiting for the agreed signal, and ready to attack together. Besides, he hoped to shed some information from this sinister encounter between Jondrette and Mr. Bai, which would enable him to know all that he missed.