You have a key to get in."
The eldest girl grumbled:--
"The idea of standing watch in the snow barefoot!"
"To-morrow you shall have some dainty little green silk boots!" said the father.
They ran down stairs, and a few seconds later the shock of the outer door as it banged to announced that they were outside.
There now remained in the house only Marius, the Jondrettes and probably, also, the mysterious persons of whom Marius had caught a glimpse in the twilight, behind the door of the unused attic.
BOOK EIGHTH.--THE WICKED POOR MAN
CHAPTER XVII
THE USE MADE OF MARIUS'' FIVE-FRANC PIECE＠思＠兔＠在＠線＠閱＠讀＠
Marius decided that the moment had now arrived when he must resume his post at his observatory.
In a twinkling, and with the agility of his age, he had reached the hole in the partition.
He looked.
The interior of the Jondrette apartment presented a curious aspect, and Marius found an explanation of the singular light which he had noticed.
A candle was burning in a candlestick covered with verdigris, but that was not what really lighted the chamber. The hovel was completely illuminated, as it were, by the reflection from a rather large sheet-iron brazier standing in the fireplace, and filled with burning charcoal, the brazier prepared by the Jondrette woman that morning.