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Candle ... ... ... ... 5 ‘
Fire ... ... ... .... 4 ‘
Service ... ... ..... 1 ‘
TOTAL ... ... ... ... 23 francs.
Service was written servisse.
‘Twenty-three francs!’ cried the woman, with an enthu-
siasm which was mingled with some hesitation.
Like all great artists, Thenardier was dissatisfied.
‘Peuh!’ he exclaimed.
It was the accent of Castlereagh auditing France’s bill at
the Congress of Vienna.
‘Monsieur Thenardier, you are right; he certainly owes
that,’ murmured the wife, who was thinking of the doll be-
stowed on Cosette in the presence of her daughters. ‘It is
just, but it is too much. He will not pay it.’
Thenardier laughed coldly, as usual, and said:—
‘He will pay.’
This laugh was the supreme assertion of certainty and
authority. That which was asserted in this manner must
needs be so. His wife did not insist.
She set about arranging the table; her husband paced the
room. A moment later he added:—
‘I owe full fifteen hundred francs!’
He went and seated himself in the chimney-corner, med-
itating, with his feet among the warm ashes.
‘Ah! by the way,’ resumed his wife, ‘you don’t forget that
I’m going to turn Cosette out of doors to-day? The monster!
She breaks my heart with that doll of hers! I’d rather marry
Louis XVIII. than keep her another day in the house!’