Page 392 - les-miserables

to and fro; midnight sounded first from the parish church,
then from the town-hall; he counted the twelve strokes of
the two clocks, and compared the sounds of the two bells;
he recalled in this connection the fact that, a few days previ-
ously, he had seen in an ironmonger’s shop an ancient clock
for sale, upon which was written the name, Antoine-Albin
de Romainville.
He was cold; he lighted a small fire; it did not occur to
him to close the window.
In the meantime he had relapsed into his stupor; he was
obliged to make a tolerably vigorous effort to recall what
had been the subject of his thoughts before midnight had
struck; he finally succeeded in doing this.
‘Ah! yes,’ he said to himself, ‘I had resolved to inform
against myself.’
And then, all of a sudden, he thought of Fantine.
‘Hold!’ said he, ‘and what about that poor woman?’
Here a fresh crisis declared itself.
Fantine, by appearing thus abruptly in his revery, pro-
duced the effect of an unexpected ray of light; it seemed to
him as though everything about him were undergoing a
change of aspect: he exclaimed:—
‘Ah! but I have hitherto considered no one but myself; it
is proper for me to hold my tongue or to denounce myself,
to conceal my person or to save my soul, to be a despica-
ble and respected magistrate, or an infamous and venerable
convict; it is I, it is always I and nothing but I: but, good
God! all this is egotism; these are diverse forms of egotism,
but it is egotism all the same. What if I were to think a lit-

392 Les Miserables