ring without melancholy, over a little misadventure which
had befallen him two days previously at the law-school, and which had
modified his personal plans for the future, plans which were rather
indistinct in any case.

Revery does not prevent a cab from passing by, nor the dreamer from
taking note of that cab. Laigle de Meaux, whose eyes were straying about
in a sort of diffuse lounging, perceived, athwart his somnambulism, a
two-wheeled vehicle proceeding through the place, at a foot pace and
apparently in indecision. For whom was this cabriolet? Why was it
driving at a walk? Laigle took a survey. In it, beside the coachman, sat
a young man, and in front of the young man lay a rather bulky hand-bag.
The bag displayed to passers-by the following name inscribed in large
black letters on a card which was sewn to the stuff: MARIUS PONTMERCY.

This name caused Laigle to change his attitude. He drew himself up and
hurled this apostrophe at the young man in the cabriolet:--

"Monsieur Marius Pontmercy!"

The cabriolet thus addressed came to a halt.

The young man, who also seemed deeply buried in thought, raised his
eyes:--

"Hey?" said he.

"You are M. Marius Pontmercy?"

"Certainly."

"I was looking for you," resumed Laigle de Meaux.

"How so?" demanded Marius; for it was he: in fact, he had just quitted
his grandfather's, and had before him a face which he now beheld for the
first time. "I do not know you."

"Neither do I know you," responded Laigle.

Marius thought he had encountered a wag, the beginning of a
mystification in the open street. He was not in a very good humor at the
moment. He frowned. Laigle de Meaux went on imperturbably:--

"You were not at the school day before yesterday."

"That is possible."

"That is certain."

"You are a student?" demanded Marius.

"Yes, sir. Like yourself. Day before yesterday, I entered the school, by
chance. You know, one does have such freaks sometimes. The professor was
just calling the roll. You are not unaware that they are very ridiculous
on such occasions. At the third call, unanswered, your name is erased
from the list. Sixty francs in the gulf."

Marius began to listen.

"It was Blondeau who was making the call. You know Blondeau, he has a
very pointed and very malicious nose, and he delights to scent out the
absent. He slyly began with the letter P. I was not listening, not being
compromised by that letter. The call was not going badly. No eras