1116 Les Miserables
These persecutions of fate had rendered him inventive.
He was full of resources. He had no money, but he found
means, when it seemed good to him, to indulge in ‘unbri-
dled extravagance.’ One night, he went so far as to eat a
‘hundred francs’ in a supper with a wench, which inspired
him to make this memorable remark in the midst of the
orgy: ‘Pull off my boots, you five-louis jade.’
Bossuet was slowly directing his steps towards the pro-
fession of a lawyer; he was pursuing his law studies after
the manner of Bahorel. Bossuet had not much domicile,
sometimes none at all. He lodged now with one, now with
another, most often with Joly. Joly was studying medicine.
He was two years younger than Bossuet.
Joly was the ‘malade imaginaire’ junior. What he had
won in medicine was to be more of an invalid than a doctor.
At three and twenty he thought himself a valetudinarian,
and passed his life in inspecting his tongue in the mirror.
He affirmed that man becomes magnetic like a needle, and
in his chamber he placed his bed with its head to the south,
and the foot to the north, so that, at night, the circulation
of his blood might not be interfered with by the great elec-
tric current of the globe. During thunder storms, he felt his
pulse. Otherwise, he was the gayest of them all. All these
young, maniacal, puny, merry incoherences lived in harmo-
ny together, and the result was an eccentric and agreeable
being whom his comrades, who were prodigal of winged
consonants, called Jolllly. ‘You may fly away on the four
L’s,’ Jean Prouvaire said to him.[23]
[23] L’Aile, wing.