five, timidly turned the handle and entered the shop, with a request for something or other, alms possibly, in a plaintive murmur which resembled a groan rather than a prayer. They both spoke at once, and their words were unintelligible because sobs broke the voice of the younger, and the teeth of the elder were chattering with cold.
The barber wheeled round with a furious look, and without abandoning his razor, thrust back the elder with his left hand and the younger with his knee, and slammed his door, saying: "The idea of coming in and freezing everybody for nothing!"
The two children resumed their march in tears.
In the meantime, a cloud had risen; it had begun to rain.
Little Gavroche ran after them and accosted them:--
"What''s the matter with you, brats?"
"We don''t know where we are to sleep," replied the elder.
"Is that all?" said Gavroche.
"A great matter, truly.
The idea of bawling about that.
They must be greenies!"
And adopting, in addition to his superiority, which was rather bantering, an accent of tender authority and gentle patronage:--
"Come along with me, young ''uns!"
"Yes, sir," said the elder.
And the two children followed him as they would have followed an archbishop.
They had stopped crying.
Gavroche led them up the Rue Saint-Antoine in the direction of the Bastille.