Page 654 - les-miserables

CHAPTER IV

ENTRANCE ON THE

SCENE OF A DOLL

The line of open-air booths starting at the church, extend-
ed, as the reader will remember, as far as the hostelry of
the Thenardiers. These booths were all illuminated, because
the citizens would soon pass on their way to the midnight
mass, with candles burning in paper funnels, which, as the
schoolmaster, then seated at the table at the Thenardiers’
observed, produced ‘a magical effect.’ In compensation, not
a star was visible in the sky.
The last of these stalls, established precisely opposite the
Thenardiers’ door, was a toy-shop all glittering with tinsel,
glass, and magnificent objects of tin. In the first row, and
far forwards, the merchant had placed on a background of
white napkins, an immense doll, nearly two feet high, who
was dressed in a robe of pink crepe, with gold wheat-ears
on her head, which had real hair and enamel eyes. All that
day, this marvel had been displayed to the wonderment of
all passers-by under ten years of age, without a mother be-
ing found in Montfermeil sufficiently rich or sufficiently

654 Les Miserables