Page 1122 - les-miserables

parently in indecision. For whom was this cabriolet? Why
was it driving at a walk? Laigle took a survey. In it, beside
the coachman, sat a young man, and in front of the young
man lay a rather bulky hand-bag. The bag displayed to pass-
ers-by the following name inscribed in large black letters
on a card which was sewn to the stuff: MARIUS PONT-
MERCY.
This name caused Laigle to change his attitude. He drew
himself up and hurled this apostrophe at the young man in
the cabriolet:—
‘Monsieur Marius Pontmercy!’
The cabriolet thus addressed came to a halt.
The young man, who also seemed deeply buried in
thought, raised his eyes:—
‘Hey?’ said he.
‘You are M. Marius Pontmercy?’
‘Certainly.’
‘I was looking for you,’ resumed Laigle de Meaux.
‘How so?’ demanded Marius; for it was he: in fact, he had
just quitted his grandfather’s, and had before him a face
which he now beheld for the first time. ‘I do not know you.’
‘Neither do I know you,’ responded Laigle.
Marius thought he had encountered a wag, the begin-
ning of a mystification in the open street. He was not in
a very good humor at the moment. He frowned. Laigle de
Meaux went on imperturbably:—
‘You were not at the school day before yesterday.’
‘That is possible.’
‘That is certain.’

1122 Les Miserables