Chapter 251 Book VI Gavroche the Younger

From 1823 onwards, when Montfermeil's inn gradually declined and gradually sank ... not into the abyss of bankruptcy, but into the quagmire of sporadic debts, the Thenardiers added two more Children, all are male.So there were five, two girls and three boys.Enough is enough. The two youngest were still very young, and Madame Thenardier was very glad to have dismissed them. It is correct to say "pass away".This woman was but a fragment of her nature.There are more than one examples of this phenomenon.Like Madame Ramot Oudangour, Madame Thénardier was a mother only to her two daughters.Her motherly love ended here.Her hatred of humans began with her sons.On her son's side her ferocity towered abruptly, here her heart had a dark wall.We have seen how she loathed her eldest son, and she hated the other two to the core.Why?because.Here is the scariest reason and the most indisputable answer: because.

"I don't want to have a lot of calves," the mother used to say. Let's talk about how the Thenardiers managed to escape their responsibility for their two young sons and even find some advantage in it. In the previous pages we were dealing with a girl named Manon, who had been supported by the good old Gillenormand for the support of her two sons, and we are now concerned with this woman.She lived at that time by the Zeresting River, at the corner of that old little Musk Street, which had turned its notoriety into fragrance as far as it could.We remember that thirty-five years ago, when the diphtheria epidemic spread widely along the banks of the Seine, science took advantage of this opportunity to test on a large scale the effect of the alum spray therapy, which is fortunately used externally today. Iodine was substituted.During the diphtheria epidemic, Ms. Manon lost two sons in succession, one in the morning and one in the evening, both very young.It was a hit.Those two children were precious to their mother, and they represented an income of eighty francs a month.The eighty francs had always been paid punctually and in full by M. Gillenormand's annual interest agent, M. Bache, a retired notary, residing in the Rue Reign, Sicily.Once the two children died, the allowance was lost.Miss Ma Nong had to find a way.She used to be a member of that criminal underworld, where everyone knew everything, kept secrets from each other, and supported each other.Ms. Manon was in desperate need of two children, and Mother Thenardier had two.Same gender, same age.What is a good deal for one party is a good investment for the other party.Two little Thénardiers became two little Manons.Miss Manon left Zelesding Riverside and moved to Zhongzhui Street.In Paris a man's parentage can be severed by exchanging his abode for a street.

The civil affairs agency didn't find out at all, so there was no objection, and this sneaky exchange succeeded without any effort.However, when Thenardier lent the two children, he demanded that he be given ten francs a month, and Ms. Manon agreed, and even paid them when they were due every month.M. Gillenormand, of course, continued to undertake his duties.He visits the two children every six months.He saw no flaws.Miss Manon always said to him: "Sir, how much they look like you!" Thenardier had no difficulty in changing his name, and he took advantage of this opportunity to become Jondrette.His two daughters and Gavroche hardly had time to pay attention to their two little brothers.When poverty reaches a certain level, people will become lonely ghosts, indifferent to each other, and treat strangers as wandering spirits.Your dearest flesh and blood will also be seen by you as dark shadows that come and go, almost becoming some vague images in the dead end of life, easily confused with invisible ghosts.

Madame Thenardier had made up her mind to abandon her two young sons forever, but on the night of handing them over to Mademoiselle Magnon, she suddenly felt guilty, or pretended to be guilty.She said to her husband: "This is the abandonment of children, this kind of practice!" Seeing her guilty conscience, Thenardier comforted her majesticly and coldly: "Jean-Jacques Rousseau has done a better job than us!" But the aunt turned from guilty conscience to flustered, and she said: "What if the police come to trouble us? What we do, Monsieur Thenardier, tell me, is it allowed?" Thenardier replied: "It's all allowed. No one will think it's transparent. Besides, no one will be interested in this kind of child who has no money. You have to go and see it clearly."

Miss Manon is a beautiful figure who does evil.She loves to decorate.Her home was poor and elegantly furnished, and she lived with a capable female thief, a French naturalized English girl.This English girl with a Parisian domicile was respected because of her contacts with some rich people. She was closely related to the medals in the library and Miss Mars's diamonds, and she was also famous in some criminal cases in the future.People called her "Miss Girl". Those two children had nothing to complain about after they were returned to Ms. Magnon.Under those eighty francs of cultivation, they were cared for like anything that could be squeezed, dressed in the least, fed in the least, treated almost like two "little gentlemen." , getting along better with fake mothers than with real ones.Miss Manon pretended to be a lady and did not speak jargon in front of them.

They lived like this for several years.Thenardier did have foresight.One day, Miss Manon came to pay her monthly fee of ten francs, and he said to her: "It is time for 'father' to educate them." Those two poor children, who had been fairly well protected in spite of their fate, were suddenly thrown into life, and had to start to fend for themselves. Mass arrests, such as those carried out in Thenardier's Den of Thieves, must be accompanied by a series of searches and arrests, which is a real disaster for such hideous secret societies that live under the public society. , such storms often cause all kinds of collapses in the dark world.Thénardier's calamity begets that of Madam Magnon.

One day, shortly after Ms. Magnon handed over the note about the Rue de Plumet to Éponine, a group of policemen suddenly came to the Rue de Belle Cone. Ms. Manon was arrested, Ms. Mies was also arrested, And the people in the whole house were all caught up because of their suspicious behavior.The two little boys were playing in a backyard at this time, and they didn't see the raid at all.When it was time for them to return home, they found their doors sealed and the entire house empty.A cobbler in a shed opposite called them and handed them a piece of paper left by "their mother."Written on the paper was an address: "Mr. Bash, Annual Agent, No. 8, Rue du King, Sicily."The man in the shed also said to them, "You don't live here anymore. Find this place, it's very close. It's the first street on the left. Take this paper and ask for directions."

The two children left, the older leading the younger, holding the guiding paper in their hands.It was cold, and his little finger was stiff, and he could not hold the paper properly.When he came to the corner of Bell Cone Street, a gust of wind blew the paper away from his hand. It was already dark, and the child could not get it back. They had to wander the streets casually.