Les Misérables, page 49
CHAPTER III--SUMS DEPOSITED WITH LAFFITTE
On the other hand, he remained as simple as on the first day. He hadgray hair, a serious eye, the sunburned complexion of a laborer, thethoughtful visage of a philosopher. He habitually wore a hat with awide brim, and a long coat of coarse cloth, buttoned to the chin. Hefulfilled his duties as mayor; but, with that exception, he lived insolitude. He spoke to but few people. He avoided polite attentions;he escaped quickly; he smiled to relieve himself of the necessity oftalking; he gave, in order to get rid of the necessity for smiling. Thewomen said of him, "What a good-natured bear!" His pleasure consisted instrolling in the fields.
He always took his meals alone, with an open book before him, which heread. He had a well-selected little library. He loved books; booksare cold but safe friends. In proportion as leisure came to him withfortune, he seemed to take advantage of it to cultivate his mind. It hadbeen observed that, ever since his arrival at M. sur M., his languagehad grown more polished, more choice, and more gentle with every passingyear. He liked to carry a gun with him on his strolls, but he rarelymade use of it. When he did happen to do so, his shooting was somethingso infallible as to inspire terror. He never killed an inoffensiveanimal. He never shot at a little bird.
Although he was no longer young, it was thought that he was stillprodigiously strong. He offered his assistance to any one who was inneed of it, lifted a horse, released a wheel clogged in the mud, orstopped a runaway bull by the horns. He always had his pockets fullof money when he went out; but they were empty on his return. When hepassed through a village, the ragged brats ran joyously after him, andsurrounded him like a swarm of gnats.
It was thought that he must, in the past, have lived a country life,since he knew all sorts of useful secrets, which he taught to thepeasants. He taught them how to destroy scurf on wheat, by sprinkling itand the granary and inundating the cracks in the floor with a solutionof common salt; and how to chase away weevils by hanging up orviot inbloom everywhere, on the walls and the ceilings, among the grass and inthe houses.
He had "recipes" for exterminating from a field, blight, tares, foxtail,and all parasitic growths which destroy the wheat. He defended a rabbitwarren against rats, simply by the odor of a guinea-pig which he placedin it.
One day he saw some country people busily engaged in pulling up nettles;he examined the plants, which were uprooted and already dried, and said:"They are dead. Nevertheless, it would be a good thing to know how tomake use of them. When the nettle is young, the leaf makes an excellentvegetable; when it is older, it has filaments and fibres like hemp andflax. Nettle cloth is as good as linen cloth. Chopped up, nettles aregood for poultry; pounded, they are good for horned cattle. The seed ofthe nettle, mixed with fodder, gives gloss to the hair of animals; theroot, mixed with salt, produces a beautiful yellow coloring-matter.Moreover, it is an excellent hay, which can be cut twice. And what isrequired for the nettle? A little soil, no care, no culture. Only theseed falls as it is ripe, and it is difficult to collect it. Thatis all. With the exercise of a little care, the nettle could be madeuseful; it is neglected and it becomes hurtful. It is exterminated. Howmany men resemble the nettle!" He added, after a pause: "Remember this,my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There areonly bad cultivators."
The children loved him because he knew how to make charming littletrifles of straw and cocoanuts.
When he saw the door of a church hung in black, he entered: he soughtout funerals as other men seek christenings. Widowhood and the grief ofothers attracted him, because of his great gentleness; he mingled withthe friends clad in mourning, with families dressed in black, withthe priests groaning around a coffin. He seemed to like to give to histhoughts for text these funereal psalmodies filled with the vision ofthe other world. With his eyes fixed on heaven, he listened with asort of aspiration towards all the mysteries of the infinite, those sadvoices which sing on the verge of the obscure abyss of death.
He performed a multitude of good actions, concealing his agency in themas a man conceals himself because of evil actions. He penetrated housesprivately, at night; he ascended staircases furtively. A poor wretchon returning to his attic would find that his door had been opened,sometimes even forced, during his absence. The poor man made a clamorover it: some malefactor had been there! He entered, and the firstthing he beheld was a piece of gold lying forgotten on some piece offurniture. The "malefactor" who had been there was Father Madeleine.
He was affable and sad. The people said: "There is a rich man who hasnot a haughty air. There is a happy man who has not a contented air."
Some people maintained that he was a mysterious person, and that noone ever entered his chamber, which was a regular anchorite's cell,furnished with winged hour-glasses and enlivened by cross-bones andskulls of dead men! This was much talked of, so that one of the elegantand malicious young women of M. sur M. came to him one day, and asked:"Monsieur le Maire, pray show us your chamber. It is said to be agrotto." He smiled, and introduced them instantly into this "grotto."They were well punished for their curiosity. The room was very simplyfurnished in mahogany, which was rather ugly, like all furniture ofthat sort, and hung with paper worth twelve sous. They could see nothingremarkable about it, except two candlesticks of antique pattern whichstood on the chimney-piece and appeared to be silver, "for they werehall-marked," an observation full of the type of wit of petty towns.
Nevertheless, people continued to say that no one ever got into theroom, and that it was a hermit's cave, a mysterious retreat, a hole, atomb.
It was also whispered about that he had "immense" sums deposited withLaffitte, with this peculiar feature, that they were always at hisimmediate disposal, so that, it was added, M. Madeleine could make hisappearance at Laffitte's any morning, sign a receipt, and carry off histwo or three millions in ten minutes. In reality, "these two or threemillions" were reducible, as we have said, to six hundred and thirty orforty thousand francs.
