Page 1023 - les-miserables

pers, the gazettes as he said, stifling outbursts of laughter
the while. ‘Oh!’ he said, ‘what people these are! Corbiere!
Humann! Casimir Perier! There’s a minister for you! I can
imagine this in a journal: ‘M. Gillenorman, minister!’ that
would be a farce. Well! They are so stupid that it would pass”;
he merrily called everything by its name, whether decent or
indecent, and did not restrain himself in the least before la-
dies. He uttered coarse speeches, obscenities, and filth with
a certain tranquillity and lack of astonishment which was
elegant. It was in keeping with the unceremoniousness of
his century. It is to be noted that the age of periphrase in
verse was the age of crudities in prose. His god-father had
predicted that he would turn out a man of genius, and had
bestowed on him these two significant names: Luc-Esprit.

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