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CHAPTER IX
MARIUS PRODUCES ON
SOME ONE WHO IS A JUDGE
OF THE MATTER, THE
EFFECT OF BEING DEAD
He allowed Marius to slide down upon the shore.
They were in the open air!
The miasmas, darkness, horror lay behind him. The pure,
healthful, living, joyous air that was easy to breathe inun-
dated him. Everywhere around him reigned silence, but
that charming silence when the sun has set in an uncloud-
ed azure sky. Twilight had descended; night was drawing
on, the great deliverer, the friend of all those who need a
mantle of darkness that they may escape from an anguish.
The sky presented itself in all directions like an enormous
calm. The river flowed to his feet with the sound of a kiss.
The aerial dialogue of the nests bidding each other good
night in the elms of the Champs-Elysees was audible. A few
stars, daintily piercing the pale blue of the zenith, and vis-