Page 1154 - les-miserables

CHAPTER I

MARIUS INDIGENT

Life became hard for Marius. It was nothing to eat his
clothes and his watch. He ate of that terrible, inexpress-
ible thing that is called de la vache enrage; that is to say,
he endured great hardships and privations. A terrible thing
it is, containing days without bread, nights without sleep,
evenings without a candle, a hearth without a fire, weeks
without work, a future without hope, a coat out at the el-
bows, an old hat which evokes the laughter of young girls, a
door which one finds locked on one at night because one’s
rent is not paid, the insolence of the porter and the cook-
shop man, the sneers of neighbors, humiliations, dignity
trampled on, work of whatever nature accepted, disgusts,
bitterness, despondency. Marius learned how all this is eat-
en, and how such are often the only things which one has to
devour. At that moment of his existence when a man needs
his pride, because he needs love, he felt that he was jeered
at because he was badly dressed, and ridiculous because
he was poor. At the age when youth swells the heart with
imperial pride, he dropped his eyes more than once on his
dilapidated boots, and he knew the unjust shame and the

1154 Les Miserables