Page 124 - les-miserables

virgins, in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Out of these pre-
cepts he was laboriously constructing a harmonious whole,
which he desired to present to souls.
At eight o’clock he was still at work, writing with a good
deal of inconvenience upon little squares of paper, with a
big book open on his knees, when Madame Magloire en-
tered, according to her wont, to get the silver-ware from the
cupboard near his bed. A moment later, the Bishop, know-
ing that the table was set, and that his sister was probably
waiting for him, shut his book, rose from his table, and en-
tered the dining-room.
The dining-room was an oblong apartment, with a fire-
place, which had a door opening on the street (as we have
said), and a window opening on the garden.
Madame Magloire was, in fact, just putting the last
touches to the table.
As she performed this service, she was conversing with
Mademoiselle Baptistine.
A lamp stood on the table; the table was near the fire-
place. A wood fire was burning there.
One can easily picture to one’s self these two women, both
of whom were over sixty years of age. Madame Magloire
small, plump, vivacious; Mademoiselle Baptistine gentle,
slender, frail, somewhat taller than her brother, dressed in
a gown of puce-colored silk, of the fashion of 1806, which
she had purchased at that date in Paris, and which had last-
ed ever since. To borrow vulgar phrases, which possess the
merit of giving utterance in a single word to an idea which
a whole page would hardly suffice to express, Madame Ma-

124 Les Miserables