hough she had been alone, frolicsome refrains which her hoarse and guttural voice rendered lugubrious.
An indescribable constraint, weariness, and humiliation were perceptible beneath this hardihood.
Effrontery is a disgrace.
Nothing could be more melancholy than to see her sport about the room, and, so to speak, flit with the movements of a bird which is frightened by the daylight, or which has broken its wing. One felt that under other conditions of education and destiny, the gay and over-free mien of this young girl might have turned out sweet and charming.
Never, even among animals, does the creature born to be a dove change into an osprey.
That is only to be seen among men.
Marius reflected, and allowed her to have her way.
She approached the table.
"Ah!" said she, "books!"
A flash pierced her glassy eye.
She resumed, and her accent expressed the happiness which she felt in boasting of something, to which no human creature is insensible:--
"I know how to read, I do!"
She eagerly seized a book which lay open on the table, and read with tolerable fluency:--
"--General Bauduin received orders to take the chateau of Hougomont which stands in the middle of the plain of Waterloo, with five battalions of his brigade."
She paused.
"Ah!
Waterloo!
I know about that.
It was a battle long ago. My father was there.