th the rest I will buy something for dinner."
"The devil, no."
"Why?"
"Don''t go and spend the hundred-sou piece."
"Why?"
"Because I shall have to buy something, too."
"What?"
"Something."
"How much shall you need?"
"Whereabouts in the neighborhood is there an ironmonger''s shop?"
"Rue Mouffetard."
"Ah! yes, at the corner of a street; I can see the shop."
"But tell me how much you will need for what you have to purchase?"
"Fifty sous--three francs."
"There won''t be much left for dinner."
"Eating is not the point to-day. There''s something better to be done."
"That''s enough, my jewel."
At this word from his wife, Jondrette closed the door again, and this time, Marius heard his step die away in the corridor of the hovel, and descend the staircase rapidly.
At that moment, one o''clock struck from the church of Saint-Medard.
BOOK EIGHTH.--THE WICKED POOR MAN
CHAPTER XIII
SOLUS CUM SOLO, IN LOCO REMOTO, NON COGITABUNTUR ORARE PATER NOSTER
Marius, dreamer as he was, was, as we have said, firm and energetic by nature.
His habits of solitary meditation, while they had developed in him sympathy and compassion, had, perhaps, diminished the faculty for irritation, but had left intact the power of waxing indignant; he had the kindliness of a brahmin, and the severity of a judge; he took pity upon a toad, but he crushed a viper.