Page 1199 - les-miserables

dangerous charm of that unexpected gleam, which flash-
es suddenly and vaguely forth from adorable shadows, and
which is composed of all the innocence of the present, and
of all the passion of the future. It is a sort of undecided ten-
derness which reveals itself by chance, and which waits. It is
a snare which the innocent maiden sets unknown to herself,
and in which she captures hearts without either wishing or
knowing it. It is a virgin looking like a woman.
It is rare that a profound revery does not spring from that
glance, where it falls. All purities and all candors meet in
that celestial and fatal gleam which, more than all the best-
planned tender glances of coquettes, possesses the magic
power of causing the sudden blossoming, in the depths of
the soul, of that sombre flower, impregnated with perfume
and with poison, which is called love.
That evening, on his return to his garret, Marius cast
his eyes over his garments, and perceived, for the first time,
that he had been so slovenly, indecorous, and inconceivably
stupid as to go for his walk in the Luxembourg with his ‘ev-
ery-day clothes,’ that is to say, with a hat battered near the
band, coarse carter’s boots, black trousers which showed
white at the knees, and a black coat which was pale at the
elbows.

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