Page 1042 - les-miserables

flabby trousers of the hue of burnt sienna. His face was the
same color as his trousers.
This M. de Lamothe was ‘held in consideration’ in this sa-
lon on account of his ‘celebrity’ and, strange to say, though
true, because of his name of Valois.
As for M. Gillenormand, his consideration was of abso-
lutely first-rate quality. He had, in spite of his levity, and
without its interfering in any way with his dignity, a certain
manner about him which was imposing, dignified, honest,
and lofty, in a bourgeois fashion; and his great age added to
it. One is not a century with impunity. The years finally pro-
duce around a head a venerable dishevelment.
In addition to this, he said things which had the genu-
ine sparkle of the old rock. Thus, when the King of Prussia,
after having restored Louis XVIII., came to pay the latter
a visit under the name of the Count de Ruppin, he was re-
ceived by the descendant of Louis XIV. somewhat as though
he had been the Marquis de Brandebourg, and with the
most delicate impertinence. M. Gillenormand approved:
‘All kings who are not the King of France,’ said he, ‘are pro-
vincial kings.’ One day, the following question was put and
the following answer returned in his presence: ‘To what was
the editor of the Courrier Francais condemned?’ ‘To be sus-
pended.’ ‘Sus is superfluous,’ observed M. Gillenormand.
[22] Remarks of this nature found a situation.
[22] Suspendu, suspended; pendu, hung.
At the Te Deum on the anniversary of the return of the
Bourbons, he said, on seeing M. de Talleyrand pass by:
‘There goes his Excellency the Evil One.’

1042 Les Miserables