Page 210 - les-miserables

CHAPTER II

A DOUBLE QUARTETTE

These Parisians came, one from Toulouse, another from
Limoges, the third from Cahors, and the fourth from Mon-
tauban; but they were students; and when one says student,
one says Parisian: to study in Paris is to be born in Paris.
These young men were insignificant; every one has seen
such faces; four specimens of humanity taken at random;
neither good nor bad, neither wise nor ignorant, neither ge-
niuses nor fools; handsome, with that charming April which
is called twenty years. They were four Oscars; for, at that ep-
och, Arthurs did not yet exist. Burn for him the perfumes of
Araby! exclaimed romance. Oscar advances. Oscar, I shall
behold him! People had just emerged from Ossian; elegance
was Scandinavian and Caledonian; the pure English style
was only to prevail later, and the first of the Arthurs, Wel-
lington, had but just won the battle of Waterloo.
These Oscars bore the names, one of Felix Tholomy-
es, of Toulouse; the second, Listolier, of Cahors; the next,
Fameuil, of Limoges; the last, Blachevelle, of Montauban.
Naturally, each of them had his mistress. Blachevelle loved
Favourite, so named because she had been in England; Li-

210 Les Miserables