1738 Les Miserables
‘Ask my pardon! Throw yourself on my neck!’
M. Gillenormand felt that Marius would leave him in a
few moments, that his harsh reception had repelled the lad,
that his hardness was driving him away; he said all this to
himself, and it augmented his grief; and as his grief was
straightway converted into wrath, it increased his harshness.
He would have liked to have Marius understand, and Marius
did not understand, which made the goodman furious.
He began again:—
‘What! you deserted me, your grandfather, you left my
house to go no one knows whither, you drove your aunt to
despair, you went off, it is easily guessed, to lead a bachelor
life; it’s more convenient, to play the dandy, to come in at all
hours, to amuse yourself; you have given me no signs of life,
you have contracted debts without even telling me to pay
them, you have become a smasher of windows and a blus-
terer, and, at the end of four years, you come to me, and that
is all you have to say to me!’
This violent fashion of driving a grandson to tenderness
was productive only of silence on the part of Marius. M. Gil-
lenormand folded his arms; a gesture which with him was
peculiarly imperious, and apostrophized Marius bitterly:—
‘Let us make an end of this. You have come to ask some-
thing of me, you say? Well, what? What is it? Speak!’
‘Sir,’ said Marius, with the look of a man who feels that he
is falling over a precipice, ‘I have come to ask your permis-
sion to marry.’
M. Gillenormand rang the bell. Basque opened the door
half-way.