1734 Les Miserables
Father Gillenormand was thinking of Marius lovingly
and bitterly; and, as usual, bitterness predominated. His
tenderness once soured always ended by boiling and turn-
ing to indignation. He had reached the point where a man
tries to make up his mind and to accept that which rends his
heart. He was explaining to himself that there was no longer
any reason why Marius should return, that if he intended
to return, he should have done it long ago, that he must re-
nounce the idea. He was trying to accustom himself to the
thought that all was over, and that he should die without
having beheld ‘that gentleman’ again. But his whole na-
ture revolted; his aged paternity would not consent to this.
‘Well!’ said he,— this was his doleful refrain,—‘he will not
return!’ His bald head had fallen upon his breast, and he
fixed a melancholy and irritated gaze upon the ashes on his
hearth.
In the very midst of his revery, his old servant Basque
entered, and inquired:—
‘Can Monsieur receive M. Marius?’
The old man sat up erect, pallid, and like a corpse which
rises under the influence of a galvanic shock. All his blood
had retreated to his heart. He stammered:—
‘M. Marius what?’
‘I don’t know,’ replied Basque, intimidated and put out of
countenance by his master’s air; ‘I have not seen him. Nico-
lette came in and said to me: ‘There’s a young man here; say
that it is M. Marius.’’
Father Gillenormand stammered in a low voice:—
‘Show him in.’