Page 1288 - les-miserables

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 re-
duced. 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 un-
happy wretches who begin by having no family, and end by
espousing the public. One is Mamselle Nobody, and one be-
comes 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,

1288 Les Miserables