id but very low tone:--

"Take a look at that man!"

Then, turning to M. Leblanc, and continuing his lamentations:--

"You see, sir! All the clothing that I have is my wife's chemise! And
all torn at that! In the depths of winter! I can't go out for lack of a
coat. If I had a coat of any sort, I would go and see Mademoiselle Mars,
who knows me and is very fond of me. Does she not still reside in the
Rue de la Tour-des-Dames? Do you know, sir? We played together in the
provinces. I shared her laurels. Celimene would come to my succor, sir!
Elmire would bestow alms on Belisaire! But no, nothing! And not a sou in
the house! My wife ill, and not a sou! My daughter dangerously injured,
not a sou! My wife suffers from fits of suffocation. It comes from her
age, and besides, her nervous system is affected. She ought to have
assistance, and my daughter also! But the doctor! But the apothecary!
How am I to pay them? I would kneel to a penny, sir! Such is the
condition to which the arts are reduced. And do you know, my charming
young lady, and you, my generous protector, do you know, you who breathe
forth virtue and goodness, and who perfume that church where my daughter
sees you every day when she says her prayers?--For I have brought up my
children religiously, sir. I did not want them to take to the theatre.
Ah! the hussies! If I catch them tripping! I do not jest, that I don't!
I read them lessons on honor, on morality, on virtue! Ask them! They
have got to walk straight. They are none of your unhappy wretches who
begin by having no family, and end by espousing the public. One is
Mamselle Nobody, and one becomes Madame Everybody. Deuce take it! None
of that in the Fabantou family! I mean to bring them up virtuously, and
they shall be honest, and nice, and believe in God, by the sacred name!
Well, sir, my worthy sir, do you know what is going to happen to-morrow?
To-morrow is the fourth day of February, the fatal day, the last day of
grace allowed me by my landlord; if by this evening I have not paid my
rent, to-morrow my oldest daughter, my spouse with her fever, my child
with her wound,--we shall all four be turned out of here and thrown into
the street, on the boulevard, without shelter, in the rain, in the snow.
There, sir. I owe for four quarters--a whole year! that is to say, sixty
francs."

Jondrette lied. Four quarters would have amounted to only forty francs,
and he could not owe four, because six months had not el