Page 707 - les-miserables

‘So so, Monsieur,’ replied the Thenardier, stupefied at not
witnessing another sort of explosion.
She continued, in a dreary and lamentable tone:—
‘Oh! Monsieur, times are so hard! and then, we have so
few bourgeois in the neighborhood! All the people are poor,
you see. If we had not, now and then, some rich and gener-
ous travellers like Monsieur, we should not get along at all.
We have so many expenses. Just see, that child is costing us
our very eyes.’
‘What child?’
‘Why, the little one, you know! Cosette—the Lark, as she
is called hereabouts!’
‘Ah!’ said the man.
She went on:—
‘How stupid these peasants are with their nicknames!
She has more the air of a bat than of a lark. You see, sir,
we do not ask charity, and we cannot bestow it. We earn
nothing and we have to pay out a great deal. The license, the
imposts, the door and window tax, the hundredths! Mon-
sieur is aware that the government demands a terrible deal
of money. And then, I have my daughters. I have no need to
bring up other people’s children.’
The man resumed, in that voice which he strove to render
indifferent, and in which there lingered a tremor:—
‘What if one were to rid you of her?’
‘Who? Cosette?’
‘Yes.’
The landlady’s red and violent face brightened up hid-
eously.

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