Page 1928 - les-miserables

CHAPTER VII

GAVROCHE AS A

PROFOUND CALCULATOR

OF DISTANCES

Marius kept his promise. He dropped a kiss on that livid
brow, where the icy perspiration stood in beads.
This was no infidelity to Cosette; it was a gentle and pen-
sive farewell to an unhappy soul.
It was not without a tremor that he had taken the letter
which Eponine had given him. He had immediately felt that
it was an event of weight. He was impatient to read it. The
heart of man is so constituted that the unhappy child had
hardly closed her eyes when Marius began to think of un-
folding this paper.
He laid her gently on the ground, and went away. Some-
thing told him that he could not peruse that letter in the
presence of that body.
He drew near to a candle in the tap-room. It was a small
note, folded and sealed with a woman’s elegant care. The
address was in a woman’s hand and ran:—

1928 Les Miserables