Page 1258 - les-miserables

cent expressed the happiness which she felt in boasting of
something, to which no human creature is insensible:—
‘I know how to read, I do!’
She eagerly seized a book which lay open on the table,
and read with tolerable fluency:—
‘—General Bauduin received orders to take the chateau
of Hougomont which stands in the middle of the plain of
Waterloo, with five battalions of his brigade.’
She paused.
‘Ah! Waterloo! I know about that. It was a battle long ago.
My father was there. My father has served in the armies. We
are fine Bonapartists in our house, that we are! Waterloo
was against the English.’
She laid down the book, caught up a pen, and
exclaimed:—
‘And I know how to write, too!’
She dipped her pen in the ink, and turning to Marius:—
‘Do you want to see? Look here, I’m going to write a word
to show you.’
And before he had time to answer, she wrote on a sheet of
white paper, which lay in the middle of the table: ‘The bob-
bies are here.’
Then throwing down the pen:—
‘There are no faults of orthography. You can look. We
have received an education, my sister and I. We have not al-
ways been as we are now. We were not made—‘
Here she paused, fixed her dull eyes on Marius, and burst
out laughing, saying, with an intonation which contained
every form of anguish, stifled by every form of cynicism:—

1258 Les Miserables