Page 2415 - les-miserables

‘Who’s that?’
In danger the porcupine bristles up, the beetle feigns
death, the old guard forms in a square; this man burst into
laughter.
Then he flicked a grain of dust from the sleeve of his coat
with a fillip.
Marius continued:
‘You are also Jondrette the workman, Fabantou the co-
median, Genflot the poet, Don Alvares the Spaniard, and
Mistress Balizard.’
‘Mistress what?’
‘And you kept a pot-house at Montfermeil.’
‘A pot-house! Never.’
‘And I tell you that your name is Thenardier.’
‘I deny it.’
‘And that you are a rascal. Here.’
And Marius drew a bank-note from his pocket and flung
it in his face.
‘Thanks! Pardon me! five hundred francs! Monsieur le
Baron!’
And the man, overcome, bowed, seized the note and ex-
amined it.
‘Five hundred francs!’ he began again, taken aback. And
he stammered in a low voice: ‘An honest rustler.’[69]
[69] Un fafiot serieux. Fafiot is the slang term for a bank-
bill, derived from its rustling noise.
Then brusquely:
‘Well, so be it!’ he exclaimed. ‘Let us put ourselves at our
ease.’

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