Page 2407 - les-miserables

attitude, and the curve in his spine augmented the profun-
dity of his bow.
The first thing that struck the observer was, that this
personage’s coat, which was too ample although carefully
buttoned, had not been made for him.
Here a short digression becomes necessary.
There was in Paris at that epoch, in a low-lived old lodg-
ing in the Rue Beautreillis, near the Arsenal, an ingenious
Jew whose profession was to change villains into honest
men. Not for too long, which might have proved embarrass-
ing for the villain. The change was on sight, for a day or two,
at the rate of thirty sous a day, by means of a costume which
resembled the honesty of the world in general as nearly as
possible. This costumer was called ‘the Changer”; the pick-
pockets of Paris had given him this name and knew him by
no other. He had a tolerably complete wardrobe. The rags
with which he tricked out people were almost probable.
He had specialties and categories; on each nail of his shop
hung a social status, threadbare and worn; here the suit of a
magistrate, there the outfit of a Cure, beyond the outfit of a
banker, in one corner the costume of a retired military man,
elsewhere the habiliments of a man of letters, and further
on the dress of a statesman.
This creature was the costumer of the immense drama
which knavery plays in Paris. His lair was the green-room
whence theft emerged, and into which roguery retreated.
A tattered knave arrived at this dressing-room, deposited
his thirty sous and selected, according to the part which he
wished to play, the costume which suited him, and on de-

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