Page 831 - les-miserables

CHAPTER IV

GAYETIES

None the less, these young girls filled this grave house
with charming souvenirs.
At certain hours childhood sparkled in that cloister. The
recreation hour struck. A door swung on its hinges. The
birds said, ‘Good; here come the children!’ An irruption of
youth inundated that garden intersected with a cross like
a shroud. Radiant faces, white foreheads, innocent eyes,
full of merry light, all sorts of auroras, were scattered about
amid these shadows. After the psalmodies, the bells, the
peals, and knells and offices, the sound of these little girls
burst forth on a sudden more sweetly than the noise of bees.
The hive of joy was opened, and each one brought her hon-
ey. They played, they called to each other, they formed into
groups, they ran about; pretty little white teeth chattered
in the corners; the veils superintended the laughs from a
distance, shades kept watch of the sunbeams, but what
mattered it? Still they beamed and laughed. Those four lugu-
brious walls had their moment of dazzling brilliancy. They
looked on, vaguely blanched with the reflection of so much
joy at this sweet swarming of the hives. It was like a shower

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