794 Les Miserables
tone.
‘And what are you doing here?’ resumed Jean Valjean.
‘Why, I am covering my melons, of course!’
In fact, at the moment when Jean Valjean accosted him,
old Fauchelevent held in his hand the end of a straw mat
which he was occupied in spreading over the melon bed.
During the hour or thereabouts that he had been in the gar-
den he had already spread out a number of them. It was this
operation which had caused him to execute the peculiar
movements observed from the shed by Jean Valjean.
He continued:—
‘I said to myself, ‘The moon is bright: it is going to freeze.
What if I were to put my melons into their greatcoats?’ And,’
he added, looking at Jean Valjean with a broad smile,—
‘pardieu! you ought to have done the same! But how do you
come here?’
Jean Valjean, finding himself known to this man, at least
only under the name of Madeleine, thenceforth advanced
only with caution. He multiplied his questions. Strange to
say, their roles seemed to be reversed. It was he, the intrud-
er, who interrogated.
‘And what is this bell which you wear on your knee?’
‘This,’ replied Fauchelevent, ‘is so that I may be avoided.’
‘What! so that you may be avoided?’
Old Fauchelevent winked with an indescribable air.
‘Ah, goodness! there are only women in this house—
many young girls. It appears that I should be a dangerous
person to meet. The bell gives them warning. When I come,
they go.’