stinct of the poor and the weak in the presence of even impersonal magnificence; and they kept behind the swans'' hutch.
Here and there, at intervals, when the wind blew, shouts, clamor, a sort of tumultuous death rattle, which was the firing, and dull blows, which were discharges of cannon, struck the ear confusedly. Smoke hung over the roofs in the direction of the Halles.
A bell, which had the air of an appeal, was ringing in the distance.
These children did not appear to notice these noises.
The little one repeated from time to time:
"I am hungry."
Almost at the same instant with the children, another couple approached the great basin.
They consisted of a goodman, about fifty years of age, who was leading by the hand a little fellow of six.
No doubt, a father and his son.
The little man of six had a big brioche.
At that epoch, certain houses abutting on the river, in the Rues Madame and d''Enfer, had keys to the Luxembourg garden, of which the lodgers enjoyed the use when the gates were shut, a privilege which was suppressed later on.
This father and son came from one of these houses, no doubt.
The two poor little creatures watched "that gentleman" approaching, and hid themselves a little more thoroughly.
He was a bourgeois.
The same person, perhaps, whom Marius had one day heard, through his love fever, near the same grand basin, counselling his son "to avoid excesses."