13 4 6 Les Miserables
seemed to be asking himself: ‘Is this man an idiot?’ Jon-
drette repeated two or three distinct times, with all manner
of varying inflections of the whining and supplicating or-
der: ‘There is nothing left for me but to throw myself into
the river! I went down three steps at the side of the bridge of
Austerlitz the other day for that purpose.’
All at once his dull eyes lighted up with a hideous flash;
the little man drew himself up and became terrible, took
a step toward M. Leblanc and cried in a voice of thunder:
‘That has nothing to do with the question! Do you know
me?’