Page 773 - les-miserables

these little basins sketched out a sort of tree on the front.
These ramifications of pipes with their hundred elbows im-
itated those old leafless vine-stocks which writhe over the
fronts of old farm-houses.
This odd espalier, with its branches of lead and iron, was
the first thing that struck Jean Valjean. He seated Cosette
with her back against a stone post, with an injunction to be
silent, and ran to the spot where the conduit touched the
pavement. Perhaps there was some way of climbing up by
it and entering the house. But the pipe was dilapidated and
past service, and hardly hung to its fastenings. Moreover, all
the windows of this silent dwelling were grated with heavy
iron bars, even the attic windows in the roof. And then,
the moon fell full upon that facade, and the man who was
watching at the corner of the street would have seen Jean
Valjean in the act of climbing. And finally, what was to be
done with Cosette? How was she to be drawn up to the top
of a three-story house?
He gave up all idea of climbing by means of the drain-
pipe, and crawled along the wall to get back into the Rue
Polonceau.
When he reached the slant of the wall where he had left
Cosette, he noticed that no one could see him there. As we
have just explained, he was concealed from all eyes, no mat-
ter from which direction they were approaching; besides
this, he was in the shadow. Finally, there were two doors;
perhaps they might be forced. The wall above which he saw
the linden-tree and the ivy evidently abutted on a garden
where he could, at least, hide himself, although there were

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