Page 1845 - les-miserables

slumbering Psyche.
Grantaire had not yet reached that lamentable phase;
far from it. He was tremendously gay, and Bossuet and Joly
retorted. They clinked glasses. Grantaire added to the ec-
centric accentuation of words and ideas, a peculiarity of
gesture; he rested his left fist on his knee with dignity, his
arm forming a right angle, and, with cravat untied, seat-
ed astride a stool, his full glass in his right hand, he hurled
solemn words at the big maid-servant Matelote:—
‘Let the doors of the palace be thrown open! Let every
one be a member of the French Academy and have the right
to embrace Madame Hucheloup. Let us drink.’
And turning to Madame Hucheloup, he added:—
‘Woman ancient and consecrated by use, draw near that
I may contemplate thee!’
And Joly exclaimed:—
‘Matelote and Gibelotte, dod’t gib Grantaire anything
more to drink. He has already devoured, since this bording,
in wild prodigality, two francs and ninety-five centibes.’
And Grantaire began again:—
‘Who has been unhooking the stars without my per-
mission, and putting them on the table in the guise of
candles?’
Bossuet, though very drunk, preserved his equanimity.
He was seated on the sill of the open window, wetting his
back in the falling rain, and gazing at his two friends.
All at once, he heard a tumult behind him, hurried foot-
steps, cries of ‘To arms!’ He turned round and saw in the
Rue Saint-Denis, at the end of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, En-

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