Page 2193 - les-miserables

CHAPTER IX

MARIUS PRODUCES ON

SOME ONE WHO IS A JUDGE

OF THE MATTER, THE

EFFECT OF BEING DEAD

He allowed Marius to slide down upon the shore.
They were in the open air!
The miasmas, darkness, horror lay behind him. The pure,
healthful, living, joyous air that was easy to breathe inun-
dated him. Everywhere around him reigned silence, but
that charming silence when the sun has set in an uncloud-
ed azure sky. Twilight had descended; night was drawing
on, the great deliverer, the friend of all those who need a
mantle of darkness that they may escape from an anguish.
The sky presented itself in all directions like an enormous
calm. The river flowed to his feet with the sound of a kiss.
The aerial dialogue of the nests bidding each other good
night in the elms of the Champs-Elysees was audible. A few
stars, daintily piercing the pale blue of the zenith, and vis-

2193