Chapter 221 Nineteen beware of dark places

As soon as Mr. Bai sat down, he turned to look at the two empty broken beds. "The poor little girl, injured, how is it now?" he asked. "No," replied Jondrette, with a troubled and grateful smile, "very bad, my noble sir. Her sister has taken her to Bourbais to be bandaged. You will see them when you turn around, and they will be gone at once." I'm coming back." "Madame Farbondoux seems to be better?" M. de Blancs asked again, looking at the strange dress of Madame Jondrette, who was standing between him and the door, as if she had begun to hold the door. Watching him in a threatening, almost combative stance.

"She is dying," said Jondrette, "but what can be done, Monsieur? This woman, she has always been so tenacious! This is not a woman, but a bull." Madame Jondrette, moved by this compliment, exclaimed like a fiddled monster: "You speak too much of my love, Monsieur Jondrette!" "Jondrette," said Monsieur Blanc, "I thought your name was Fabondoux." "Fabbondo, aka Jondrette!" her husband hastened to declare. "The artist's stage name!" At the same time, he shrugged his shoulders at his woman, but Mr. Bai didn't see it, and then he continued in a tense and euphemistic tone:

"Ah! is it not, I and my poor good man have always been on good terms! If we didn't even have that kind of affection, what would we have! Our life is too hard, My venerable sir! I have arms, but no work! I have a heart, but no work! I don't know how the government arranges these things, but, on my honor, sir, I am not a Jacobin , sir, I'm not a Bussango, I don't blame the government, but if I were a minister, to say the most holy thing, it would be different. For example, I wanted my two daughters to learn to paste paper Box work. You may say to me: 'Why! Learn a trade?' Yes! A trade! A simple trade! A way of eating! How shameful, my benefactor! Remembering how we used to be What a depravity this is! Alas! We have not left any traces of our prosperous days. There is only one thing left, an oil painting, which I am most reluctant to part with, but I can also reluctantly sell it, because we We have to live, no matter what, we have to live!"

Jondrette was obviously talking nonsense, and although he was incoherent, judging from his facial expression, he was still confident and clever. At this moment, Marius raised his eyes, and suddenly saw that there was another person at the bottom of the room. He had never seen it before.The man had just come in, and his movements were so light that no one heard the door swing.He wore a knitted vest of purple thread, which was worn out, stained, and torn at the folds. Underneath was a pair of loose cotton velvet trousers, and on his feet were a pair of clogs. Shirt, bare neck, bare arms with tattoos, and black on his face.He sat silently with his arms folded on the nearest bed, and since he was sitting behind Madam Jondrette he was hardly visible.

Under the influence of the magnetic intuition that touches the vision, Mr. Bai turned his head almost at the same time as Marius.He unexpectedly made a surprised movement, which Jondrette recognized immediately.He buttoned his clothes in a courteous manner, and said loudly: "Ah! I know! Are you looking at your coat? It fits me well! Indeed, I do fit well!" "Who is this man?" Mr. Bai said. "This?" said Jondrette, "a neighbor. Leave him alone." The neighbor looked a little special.At that time, there were many chemical factories in the suburbs of San Marceau, and the faces of many workers were indeed blackened.Mr. Bai also shows a straightforward and fearless confidence in people.He went on to say:

"Excuse me, Monsieur Fabontou, what were you talking to me just now?" "I was talking to you just now, Monsieur, my dear patron," went on Jondrette, leaning his elbows on the table, and fixed and gentle eyes on Monsieur Blanc like a serpent. , "I was talking to you just now about an oil painting that I want to sell." The door rang slightly.Another person came in and went to sit on the bed behind Madame Jondrette.This second figure, like the first, is also bare-armed and wears a mask painted with ink or pine smoke. Although this person sneaked in, there was no way for Mr. Bai to find out.

"Don't worry about it," said Jondrette. "They're all roommates. As I said, I still have a painting, a precious painting... Come and see, Monsieur." He stood up, went to the wall, lifted the painting we mentioned earlier, turned it over from the base of the wall, and still leaned it against the wall.It was indeed something like an oil painting, and the candlelight was more or less shining on it.Marius could not see it clearly, for Jondrette was standing between him and the picture, and he could only see something crudely daubed, in which there was a main figure in harsh and harsh colors, Similar to the pictures sold in the market or the paintings on the screens.

"What is this?" Mr. Bai asked. Jondrette was full of praise: "It is a work of a famous master, a work of great value, my benefactor! It is as precious to me as my two daughters, and it brings back many memories! But, I have I told you, and still say it, that I was in such a difficult position that I wanted to sell it..." Maybe it was by chance, maybe it was because he started to be wary, although Mr. Bai's eyes were looking at the oil painting, he was also paying attention to the bottom of the room.At this time, four people had already arrived, three were sitting on the bed, one was standing by the door frame, all four were naked and stood motionless, their faces smeared with black.Of the three on the bed, one was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, as if asleep.It was an old man with a black face and white hair, and a terrifying appearance.The other two were young, one with a beard and one with long hair.No one wore leather shoes, either cloth shoes or bare soles.

Jondrette noticed that Mr. Bai's eyes were always looking at these people. "These are friends, people who live next to each other," he said. "Their faces are black because they work in the coal pile all day. They are chimney chimneys. Don't worry about them, my benefactor, or Buy this oil painting of mine. Please show mercy and save me, a poor man. I will not ask you for a high price. How much do you think it is worth?" "But," said Monsieur Baird, looking directly at Jondrette with his eyes staring like a man on the alert, "it's a wine shop sign, worth three francs."

Jondrette replied pleasantly: "Have you brought your purse? All I need is a thousand crowns." Mr. Bai stood upright, leaning against the wall, his eyes quickly scanned around the room.He had Jondrette on his left, by the window, and Madam Jondrette and the four men on his right, by the door.The four men did not move, and did not even seem to see him, and Jondrette resumed his pathetic chatter, his eyes so bewildered, and his tone of voice so miserable that Mr. What he saw was just a poor man who was crazy. "My dear benefactor, if you don't buy my painting," said Jondrette, "I have nowhere to go, so I have to jump into the river. When I think that I only hope that my two daughters will learn to paint that painting." Semi-delicate cardboard box, the kind used for New Year’s gifts. But! There must be a table with a baffle inside to prevent the glass from falling on the floor, a special stove, and a partition like that. A three-compartment bowl is used to hold various pastes of different densities, some are pasted with wood veneer, some are pasted with paper or cloth, and there must also be a knife for cutting cardboard, a mold for correcting the angle of the cardboard, and a nail Iron hammers, and row pens, and all the rest, how can I know so much, I? And this whole thing just for four sous a day! And fourteen hours of work! Every box Thirteen operations in the hands of a workman! The paper must be dampened! No marks must be allowed! The paste must not be allowed to cool! There are endless tricks, I tell you! Four sous a day ! How do you want us to live?"

Jondrette just went on talking, Mr. Bai watched him attentively, but he did not look at Mr. Bai.Mr. Bai's eyes were fixed on Jondrette, and Jondrette's eyes were always on the door.Marius, with a beating heart and shortness of breath, looked back and forth between them.Mr. Bai seems to be thinking: Is this an idiot?Jondrette said one after another in weak, pleading tones: "I have no other choice but to jump into the river! Some days ago, on the bank near the Austerlitz Bridge, I fell into the water. Go down three steps!" Suddenly, his gloomy eyes suddenly lit up with fierce flames. The boy stood upright, aggressively, took a step towards Mr. Bai, and shouted at him like a thunderbolt: "It's all nonsense! Do you recognize me?"