Page 1314 - les-miserables

CHAPTER XIV

IN WHICH A POLICE

AGENT BESTOWS TWO

FISTFULS ON A LAWYER

On arriving at No. 14, Rue de Pontoise, he ascended to
the first floor and inquired for the commissary of police.
‘The commissary of police is not here,’ said a clerk; ‘but
there is an inspector who takes his place. Would you like to
speak to him? Are you in haste?’
‘Yes,’ said Marius.
The clerk introduced him into the commissary’s office.
There stood a tall man behind a grating, leaning against a
stove, and holding up with both hands the tails of a vast
topcoat, with three collars. His face was square, with a thin,
firmmouth, thick, gray, and very ferocious whiskers, and a
look that was enough to turn your pockets inside out. Of
that glance it might have been well said, not that it penetrat-
ed, but that it searched.
This man’s air was not much less ferocious nor less ter-
rible than Jondrette’s; the dog is, at times, no less terrible to

1314 Les Miserables