318 Les Miserables
the public full sets of teeth, opiates, powders and elixirs.
Fantine mingled in the group, and began to laugh with
the rest at the harangue, which contained slang for the pop-
ulace and jargon for respectable people. The tooth-puller
espied the lovely, laughing girl, and suddenly exclaimed:
‘You have beautiful teeth, you girl there, who are laughing;
if you want to sell me your palettes, I will give you a gold
napoleon apiece for them.’
‘What are my palettes?’ asked Fantine.
‘The palettes,’ replied the dental professor, ‘are the front
teeth, the two upper ones.’
‘How horrible!’ exclaimed Fantine.
‘Two napoleons!’ grumbled a toothless old woman who
was present. ‘Here’s a lucky girl!’
Fantine fled and stopped her ears that she might not hear
the hoarse voice of the man shouting to her: ‘Reflect, my
beauty! two napoleons; they may prove of service. If your
heart bids you, come this evening to the inn of the Tillac
d’Argent; you will find me there.’
Fantine returned home. She was furious, and related the
occurrence to her good neighbor Marguerite: ‘Can you un-
derstand such a thing? Is he not an abominable man? How
can they allow such people to go about the country! Pull out
my two front teeth! Why, I should be horrible! My hair will
grow again, but my teeth! Ah! what a monster of a man! I
should prefer to throw myself head first on the pavement
from the fifth story! He told me that he should be at the
Tillac d’Argent this evening.’
‘And what did he offer?’ asked Marguerite.