Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1713
‘Take care, you’ll cut yourself,’ replied Montparnasse.
Thenardier resumed in his decided tone:—
‘Decamp, my girl, and leave men to their own affairs!’
Eponine released Montparnasse’s hand, which she had
grasped again, and said:—
‘So you mean to enter this house?’
‘Rather!’ grinned the ventriloquist.
Then she set her back against the gate, faced the six ruf-
fians who were armed to the teeth, and to whom the night
lent the visages of demons, and said in a firm, low voice:—
‘Well, I don’t mean that you shall.’
They halted in amazement. The ventriloquist, however,
finished his grin. She went on:—
‘Friends! Listen well. This is not what you want. Now I’m
talking. In the first place, if you enter this garden, if you
lay a hand on this gate, I’ll scream, I’ll beat on the door, I’ll
rouse everybody, I’ll have the whole six of you seized, I’ll
call the police.’
‘She’d do it, too,’ said Thenardier in a low tone to Brujon
and the ventriloquist.
She shook her head and added:—
‘Beginning with my father!’
Thenardier stepped nearer.
‘Not so close, my good man!’ said she.
He retreated, growling between his teeth:—
‘Why, what’s the matter with her?’
And he added:—
‘Bitch!’
She began to laugh in a terrible way:—