Page 413 - les-miserables

‘Are you going far in this condition?’ said the man.
He replied, with an air of not having roused himself
from his revery:—
‘Why?’
‘Have you come from a great distance?’ went on the
man.
‘Five leagues.’
‘Ah!’
‘Why do you say, ‘Ah?’’
The man bent down once more, was silent for a mo-
ment, with his eyes fixed on the wheel; then he rose erect
and said:—
‘Because, though this wheel has travelled five leagues, it
certainly will not travel another quarter of a league.’
He sprang out of the tilbury.
‘What is that you say, my friend?’
‘I say that it is a miracle that you should have travelled
five leagues without you and your horse rolling into some
ditch on the highway. Just see here!’
The wheel really had suffered serious damage. The shock
administered by the mail-wagon had split two spokes and
strained the hub, so that the nut no longer held firm.
‘My friend,’ he said to the stableman, ‘is there a wheel-
wright here?’
‘Certainly, sir.’
‘Do me the service to go and fetch him.’
‘He is only a step from here. Hey! Master Bourgaillard!’
Master Bourgaillard, the wheelwright, was standing on
his own threshold. He came, examined the wheel and made

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