442 Les Miserables
‘What! It will not be opened when the hearing is re-
sumed? Is not the hearing suspended?’
‘The hearing has just been begun again,’ replied the ush-
er, ‘but the door will not be opened again.’
‘Why?’
‘Because the hall is full.’
‘What! There is not room for one more?’
‘Not another one. The door is closed. No one can enter
now.’
The usher added after a pause: ‘There are, to tell the truth,
two or three extra places behind Monsieur le President, but
Monsieur le President only admits public functionaries to
t hem.’
So saying, the usher turned his back.
He retired with bowed head, traversed the antecham-
ber, and slowly descended the stairs, as though hesitating
at every step. It is probable that he was holding counsel
with himself. The violent conflict which had been going on
within him since the preceding evening was not yet ended;
and every moment he encountered some new phase of it.
On reaching the landing-place, he leaned his back against
the balusters and folded his arms. All at once he opened his
coat, drew out his pocket-book, took from it a pencil, tore
out a leaf, and upon that leaf he wrote rapidly, by the light of
the street lantern, this line: M. Madeleine, Mayor of M. sur
M.; then he ascended the stairs once more with great strides,
made his way through the crowd, walked straight up to the
usher, handed him the paper, and said in an authoritative
manner:—