Page 1283 - les-miserables

At that moment there came a light tap at the door, the
man rushed to it and opened it, exclaiming, amid profound
bows and smiles of adoration:—
‘Enter, sir! Deign to enter, most respected benefactor,
and your charming young lady, also.’
A man of ripe age and a young girl made their appear-
ance on the threshold of the attic.
Marius had not quitted his post. His feelings for the mo-
ment surpassed the powers of the human tongue.
It was She!
Whoever has loved knows all the radiant meanings con-
tained in those three letters of that word: She.
It was certainly she. Marius could hardly distinguish her
through the luminous vapor which had suddenly spread be-
fore his eyes. It was that sweet, absent being, that star which
had beamed upon him for six months; it was those eyes, that
brow, that mouth, that lovely vanished face which had cre-
ated night by its departure. The vision had been eclipsed,
now it reappeared.
It reappeared in that gloom, in that garret, in that mis-
shapen attic, in all that horror.
Marius shuddered in dismay. What! It was she! The pal-
pitations of his heart troubled his sight. He felt that he was
on the brink of bursting into tears! What! He beheld her
again at last, after having sought her so long! It seemed to
him that he had lost his soul, and that he had just found it
again.
She was the same as ever, only a little pale; her delicate
face was framed in a bonnet of violet velvet, her figure was

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