Page 1248 - les-miserables
P. 1248

ily of six children the last of which is only eight months old.
         I sick since my last confinement, abandoned by my husband
         five months ago, haveing no resources in the world the most
         frightful indigance.
            In  the  hope  of  Madame  la  Comtesse,  she  has
         the  honor  to  be,  Madame,  with  profound  respect,
         Mistress Balizard.
            Marius turned to the third letter, which was a petition
         like the preceding; he read:—

            Monsieur Pabourgeot, Elector, wholesale stocking merchant,
            Rue Saint-Denis on the corner of the Rue aux Fers.

            I permit myself to address you this letter to beg you to
         grant me the pretious favor of your simpaties and to inter-
         est yourself in a man of letters who has just sent a drama to
         the Theatre-Francais. The subject is historical, and the ac-
         tion takes place in Auvergne in the time of the Empire; the
         style, I think, is natural, laconic, and may have some merit.
         There are couplets to be sung in four places. The comic, the
         serious, the unexpected, are mingled in a variety of char-
         acters, and a tinge of romanticism lightly spread through
         all the intrigue which proceeds misteriously, and ends, after
         striking altarations, in the midst of many beautiful strokes
         of brilliant scenes.
            My  principal  object  is  to  satisfi  the  desire  which  pro-
         gressively animates the man of our century, that is to say,
         the fashion, that capritious and bizarre weathervane which
         changes at almost every new wind.

         1248                                  Les Miserables
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