Page 495 - les-miserables

CHAPTER IV

AUTHORITY REASSERTS

ITS RIGHTS

Fantine had not seen Javert since the day on which the
mayor had torn her from the man. Her ailing brain compre-
hended nothing, but the only thing which she did not doubt
was that he had come to get her. She could not endure that
terrible face; she felt her life quitting her; she hid her face in
both hands, and shrieked in her anguish:—
‘Monsieur Madeleine, save me!’
Jean Valjean—we shall henceforth not speak of him oth-
erwise— had risen. He said to Fantine in the gentlest and
calmest of voices:—
‘Be at ease; it is not for you that he is come.’
Then he addressed Javert, and said:—
‘I know what you want.’
Javert replied:—
‘Be quick about it!’
There lay in the inflection of voice which accompanied
these words something indescribably fierce and frenzied.
Javert did not say, ‘Be quick about it!’ he said ‘Bequiabouit.’

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