Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 647
liamentary language, ‘exposing the crown.’ Although their
concord had only evil as its result, there was contemplation
in Madame Thenardier’s submission to her husband. That
mountain of noise and of flesh moved under the little finger
of that frail despot. Viewed on its dwarfed and grotesque
side, this was that grand and universal thing, the adoration
of mind by matter; for certain ugly features have a cause in
the very depths of eternal beauty. There was an unknown
quantity about Thenardier; hence the absolute empire of the
man over that woman. At certain moments she beheld him
like a lighted candle; at others she felt him like a claw.
This woman was a formidable creature who loved no one
except her children, and who did not fear any one except
her husband. She was a mother because she was mammif-
erous. But her maternity stopped short with her daughters,
and, as we shall see, did not extend to boys. The man had
but one thought,—how to enrich himself.
He did not succeed in this. A theatre worthy of this
great talent was lacking. Thenardier was ruining himself at
Montfermeil, if ruin is possible to zero; in Switzerland or
in the Pyrenees this penniless scamp would have become a
millionaire; but an inn-keeper must browse where fate has
hitched him.
It will be understood that the word inn-keeper is here
employed in a restricted sense, and does not extend to an
entire class.
In this same year, 1823, Thenardier was burdened with
about fifteen hundred francs’ worth of petty debts, and this
rendered him anxious.