1042 Les Miserables
flabby trousers of the hue of burnt sienna. His face was the
same color as his trousers.
This M. de Lamothe was ‘held in consideration’ in this sa-
lon on account of his ‘celebrity’ and, strange to say, though
true, because of his name of Valois.
As for M. Gillenormand, his consideration was of abso-
lutely first-rate quality. He had, in spite of his levity, and
without its interfering in any way with his dignity, a certain
manner about him which was imposing, dignified, honest,
and lofty, in a bourgeois fashion; and his great age added to
it. One is not a century with impunity. The years finally pro-
duce around a head a venerable dishevelment.
In addition to this, he said things which had the genu-
ine sparkle of the old rock. Thus, when the King of Prussia,
after having restored Louis XVIII., came to pay the latter
a visit under the name of the Count de Ruppin, he was re-
ceived by the descendant of Louis XIV. somewhat as though
he had been the Marquis de Brandebourg, and with the
most delicate impertinence. M. Gillenormand approved:
‘All kings who are not the King of France,’ said he, ‘are pro-
vincial kings.’ One day, the following question was put and
the following answer returned in his presence: ‘To what was
the editor of the Courrier Francais condemned?’ ‘To be sus-
pended.’ ‘Sus is superfluous,’ observed M. Gillenormand.
[22] Remarks of this nature found a situation.
[22] Suspendu, suspended; pendu, hung.
At the Te Deum on the anniversary of the return of the
Bourbons, he said, on seeing M. de Talleyrand pass by:
‘There goes his Excellency the Evil One.’