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CHAPTER IV
A ROSE IN MISERY
A very young girl was standing in the half-open door. The
dormer window of the garret, through which the light fell,
was precisely opposite the door, and illuminated the fig-
ure with a wan light. She was a frail, emaciated, slender
creature; there was nothing but a chemise and a petticoat
upon that chilled and shivering nakedness. Her girdle was
a string, her head ribbon a string, her pointed shoulders
emerged from her chemise, a blond and lymphatic pallor,
earth-colored collar-bones, red hands, a half-open and de-
graded mouth, missing teeth, dull, bold, base eyes; she had
the form of a young girl who has missed her youth, and the
look of a corrupt old woman; fifty years mingled with fif-
teen; one of those beings which are both feeble and horrible,
and which cause those to shudder whom they do not cause
to weep.
Marius had risen, and was staring in a sort of stupor at
this being, who was almost like the forms of the shadows
which traverse dreams.
The most heart-breaking thing of all was, that this young
girl had not come into the world to be homely. In her early