Page 115 - les-miserables

was a large whitewashed room, with a bed draped in print-
ed cotton stuff, and a cradle in one corner, a few wooden
chairs, and a double-barrelled gun hanging on the wall. A
table was spread in the centre of the room. A copper lamp
illuminated the tablecloth of coarse white linen, the pewter
jug shining like silver, and filled with wine, and the brown,
smoking soup-tureen. At this table sat a man of about forty,
with a merry and open countenance, who was dandling a
little child on his knees. Close by a very young woman was
nursing another child. The father was laughing, the child
was laughing, the mother was smiling.
The stranger paused a moment in revery before this ten-
der and calming spectacle. What was taking place within
him? He alone could have told. It is probable that he thought
that this joyous house would be hospitable, and that, in a
place where he beheld so much happiness, he would find
perhaps a little pity.
He tapped on the pane with a very small and feeble
knock.
They did not hear him.
He tapped again.
He heard the woman say, ‘It seems to me, husband, that
some one is knocking.’
‘No,’ replied the husband.
He tapped a third time.
The husband rose, took the lamp, and went to the door,
which he opened.
He was a man of lofty stature, half peasant, half arti-
san. He wore a huge leather apron, which reached to his

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