to
himself, "it was probably only a resemblance."

CHAPTER II--TREASURE TROVE

Marius had not left the Gorbeau house. He paid no attention to any one
there.

At that epoch, to tell the truth, there were no other inhabitants in the
house, except himself and those Jondrettes whose rent he had once paid,
without, moreover, ever having spoken to either father, mother, or
daughters. The other lodgers had moved away or had died, or had been
turned out in default of payment.

One day during that winter, the sun had shown itself a little in the
afternoon, but it was the 2d of February, that ancient Candlemas
day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of a six weeks' cold spell,
inspired Mathieu Laensberg with these two lines, which have with justice
remained classic:--

Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne,
L'ours rentre dans en sa caverne.[26]

Marius had just emerged from his: night was falling. It was the hour for
his dinner; for he had been obliged to take to dining again, alas! oh,
infirmities of ideal passions!

He had just crossed his threshold, where Ma'am Bougon was sweeping at
the moment, as she uttered this memorable monologue:--

"What is there that is cheap now? Everything is dear. There is nothing
in the world that is cheap except trouble; you can get that for nothing,
the trouble of the world!"

Marius slowly ascended the boulevard towards the barrier, in order to
reach the Rue Saint-Jacques. He was walking along with drooping head.

All at once, he felt some one elbow him in the dusk; he wheeled round,
and saw two young girls clad in rags, the one tall and slim, the other a
little shorter, who were passing rapidly, all out of breath, in terror,
and with the appearance of fleeing; they had been coming to meet him,
had not seen him, and had jostled him as they passed. Through the
twilight, Marius could distinguish their livid faces, their wild heads,
their dishevelled hair, their hideous bonnets, their ragged petticoats,
and their bare feet. They were talking as they ran. The taller said in a
very low voice:--

"The bobbies have come. They came near nabbing me at the half-circle."
The other answered: "I saw them. I bolted, bolted, bolted!"

Through this repulsive slang, Marius understood that gendarmes or the
police had come near apprehending these two children, and that the
latter had escaped.

They plunged among the trees of the boulevard behind him, and there
created, fo