ged back into the gloom as though he made a hole in it, with the rigid rapidity of a projectile; the alley of l''Homme Arme became silent and solitary once more; in a twinkling, that strange child, who had about him something of the shadow and of the dream, had buried himself in the mists of the rows of black houses, and was lost there, like smoke in the dark; and one might have thought that he had dissipated and vanished, had there not taken place, a few minutes after his disappearance, a startling shiver of glass, and had not the magnificent crash of a lantern rattling down on the pavement once more abruptly awakened the indignant bourgeois.
It was Gavroche upon his way through the Rue du Chaume.
BOOK FIFTEENTH.--THE RUE DE L''HOMME ARME
CHAPTER III
WHILE COSETTE AND TOUSSAINT ARE ASLEEP
Jean Valjean went into the house with Marius'' letter.
He groped his way up the stairs, as pleased with the darkness as an owl who grips his prey, opened and shut his door softly, listened to see whether he could hear any noise,--made sure that, to all appearances, Cosette and Toussaint were asleep, and plunged three or four matches into the bottle of the Fumade lighter before he could evoke a spark, so greatly did his hand tremble. What he had just done smacked of theft.
At last the candle was lighted; he leaned his elbows on the table, unfolded the paper, and read.