2258 Les Miserables
be worn out. No other word could resist the merciless use
which lovers make of it.
Then as there were spectators, they paused and said not
a word more, contenting themselves with softly touching
each other’s hands.
M. Gillenormand turned towards those who were in the
room and cried:
‘Talk loud, the rest of you. Make a noise, you people be-
hind the scenes. Come, a little uproar, the deuce! so that the
children can chatter at their ease.’
And, approaching Marius and Cosette, he said to them
in a very low voice:
‘Call each other thou. Don’t stand on ceremony.’
Aunt Gillenormand looked on in amazement at this ir-
ruption of light in her elderly household. There was nothing
aggressive about this amazement; it was not the least in the
world like the scandalized and envious glance of an owl at
two turtle-doves, it was the stupid eye of a poor innocent
seven and fifty years of age; it was a life which had been a
failure gazing at that triumph, love.
‘Mademoiselle Gillenormand senior,’ said her father to
her, ‘I told you that this is what would happen to you.’
He remained silent for a moment, and then added:
‘Look at the happiness of others.’
Then he turned to Cosette.
‘How pretty she is! how pretty she is! She’s a Greuze. So
you are going to have that all to yourself, you scamp! Ah!
my rogue, you are getting off nicely with me, you are hap-
py; if I were not fifteen years too old, we would fight with