Page 1309 - les-miserables

CHAPTER XIII

SOLUS CUM SOLO, IN

LOCO REMOTO, NON

COGITABUNTUR ORARE

PATER NOSTER

Marius, dreamer as he was, was, as we have said, firm
and energetic by nature. His habits of solitary meditation,
while they had developed in him sympathy and compas-
sion, had, perhaps, diminished the faculty for irritation, but
had left intact the power of waxing indignant; he had the
kindliness of a brahmin, and the severity of a judge; he took
pity upon a toad, but he crushed a viper. Now, it was into a
hole of vipers that his glance had just been directed, it was a
nest of monsters that he had beneath his eyes.
‘These wretches must be stamped upon,’ said he.
Not one of the enigmas which he had hoped to see solved
had been elucidated; on the contrary, all of them had been
rendered more dense, if anything; he knew nothing more
about the beautiful maiden of the Luxembourg and the man

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