1272 Les Miserables
ground his teeth:—
‘Oh! I could eat the whole world!’
A big woman, who might be forty years of age, or a hun-
dred, was crouching near the fireplace on her bare heels.
She, too, was clad only in a chemise and a knitted pet-
ticoat patched with bits of old cloth. A coarse linen apron
concealed the half of her petticoat. Although this woman
was doubled up and bent together, it could be seen that she
was of very lofty stature. She was a sort of giant, beside her
husband. She had hideous hair, of a reddish blond which was
turning gray, and which she thrust back from time to time,
with her enormous shining hands, with their flat nails.
Beside her, on the floor, wide open, lay a book of the same
form as the other, and probably a volume of the same ro-
mance.
On one of the pallets, Marius caught a glimpse of a sort
of tall pale young girl, who sat there half naked and with
pendant feet, and who did not seem to be listening or see-
ing or living.
No doubt the younger sister of the one who had come to
his room.
She seemed to be eleven or twelve years of age. On closer
scrutiny it was evident that she really was fourteen. She was
the child who had said, on the boulevard the evening be-
fore: ‘I bolted, bolted, bolted!’
She was of that puny sort which remains backward for
a long time, then suddenly starts up rapidly. It is indigence
which produces these melancholy human plants. These
creatures have neither childhood nor youth. At fifteen years