1282 Les Miserables
Then turning to the elder:—
‘There now! He is not coming! What if he were not to
come! I shall have extinguished my fire, wrecked my chair,
torn my shirt, and broken my pane all for nothing.’
‘And wounded the child!’ murmured the mother.
‘Do you know,’ went on the father, ‘that it’s beastly cold
in this devil’s garret! What if that man should not come!
Oh! See there, you! He makes us wait! He says to himself:
‘Well! they will wait for me! That’s what they’re there for.’
Oh! how I hate them, and with what joy, jubilation, enthu-
siasm, and satisfaction I could strangle all those rich folks!
all those rich folks! These men who pretend to be charita-
ble, who put on airs, who go to mass, who make presents
to the priesthood, preachy, preachy, in their skullcaps, and
who think themselves above us, and who come for the pur-
pose of humiliating us, and to bring us ‘clothes,’ as they say!
old duds that are not worth four sous! And bread! That’s
not what I want, pack of rascals that they are, it’s money!
Ah! money! Never! Because they say that we would go off
and drink it up, and that we are drunkards and idlers! And
they! What are they, then, and what have they been in their
time! Thieves! They never could have become rich other-
wise! Oh! Society ought to be grasped by the four corners
of the cloth and tossed into the air, all of it! It would all be
smashed, very likely, but at least, no one would have any-
thing, and there would be that much gained! But what is
that blockhead of a benevolent gentleman doing? Will he
come? Perhaps the animal has forgotten the address! I’ll bet
that that old beast—‘