A few moments later, about three o’clock, Courfeyrac chanced to be passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had redoubled in violence, and filled the air.
Bossuet was just saying to Courfeyrac:— 'One would say, to see all these snow-flakes fall, that there was a plague of white butterflies in heaven. ' All at once, Bossuet caught sight of Marius coming up the street towards the barrier with a peculiar air. 'Hold! ' said Bossuet.
'There’s Marius. ' 'I saw him,' said Courfeyrac. 'Don’t let’s speak to him. ' 'Why? ' 'He is busy. ' 'With what? ' 'Don’t you see his air? ' 'What air? ' 'He has the air of a man who is following some one. ' 'That’s true,' said Bossuet.
'Just see the eyes he is making! ' said Courfeyrac. 'But who the deuce is he following? ' 'Some fine, flowery bonneted wench! He’s in love. ' 'But,' observed Bossuet, 'I don’t see any wench nor any flowery bonnet in the street. There’s not a woman round.
' Courfeyrac took a survey, and exclaimed:— 'He’s following a man! ' A man, in fact, wearing a gray cap, and whose gray beard could be distinguished, although they only saw his back, was walking along about twenty paces in advance of Marius.
This man was dressed in a great-coat which was perfectly new and too large for him, and in a frightful pair of trousers all hanging in rags and black with mud. Bossuet burst out laughing. 'Who is that man? ' 'He? ' retorted Courfeyrac, 'he’s a poet.
Poets are very fond of wearing the trousers of dealers in rabbit skins and the overcoats of peers of France. ' 'Let’s see where Marius will go,' said Bossuet; 'let’s see where the man is going, let’s follow them, hey? ' 'Bossuet! ' exclaimed Courfeyrac, 'eagle of Meaux!
You are a prodigious brute. Follow a