Page 2424 - les-miserables

house whose comforts one would then share, and, at the
same stroke, to conceal one’s crime, and to enjoy one’s theft,
to bury one’s name and to create for oneself a family.’
‘I might interrupt you at this point,’ said Marius, ‘but go
on.’
‘Monsieur le Baron, I will tell you all, leaving the recom-
pense to your generosity. This secret is worth massive gold.
You will say to me: ‘Why do not you apply to Jean Valjean?’
For a very simple reason; I know that he has stripped him-
self, and stripped himself in your favor, and I consider the
combination ingenious; but he has no longer a son, he would
show me his empty hands, and, since I am in need of some
money for my trip to la Joya, I prefer you, you who have it
all, to him who has nothing. I am a little fatigued, permit
me to take a chair.’
Marius seated himself and motioned to him to do the
same.
Thenardier installed himself on a tufted chair, picked up
his two newspapers, thrust them back into their envelope,
and murmured as he pecked at the Drapeau Blanc with his
nail: ‘It cost me a good deal of trouble to get this one.’
That done he crossed his legs and stretched himself out
on the back of the chair, an attitude characteristic of people
who are sure of what they are saying, then he entered upon
his subject gravely, emphasizing his words:
‘Monsieur le Baron, on the 6th of June, 1832, about a year
ago, on the day of the insurrection, a man was in the Grand
Sewer of Paris, at the point where the sewer enters the Seine,
between the Pont des Invalides and the Pont de Jena.’

2424 Les Miserables