It was this toilette which had extracted from Jondrette the exclamation:
"Good!
You have dressed up. You have done well.
You must inspire confidence!"
As for Jondrette, he had not taken off the new surtout, which was too large for him, and which M. Leblanc had given him, and his costume continued to present that contrast of coat and trousers which constituted the ideal of a poet in Courfeyrac''s eyes.
All at once, Jondrette lifted up his voice:--
"By the way!
Now that I think of it.
In this weather, he will come in a carriage.
Light the lantern, take it and go down stairs. You will stand behind the lower door.
The very moment that you hear the carriage stop, you will open the door, instantly, he will come up, you will light the staircase and the corridor, and when he enters here, you will go down stairs again as speedily as possible, you will pay the coachman, and dismiss the fiacre.
"And the money?" inquired the woman.
Jondrette fumbled in his trousers pocket and handed her five francs.
"What''s this?" she exclaimed.
Jondrette replied with dignity:--
"That is the monarch which our neighbor gave us this morning."
And he added:--
"Do you know what?
Two chairs will be needed here."
"What for?"
"To sit on."
Marius felt a cold chill pass through his limbs at hearing this mild answer from Jondrette.