"Nous n'sommes pas le jour de l'an, A bécoter papa, maman." Éponine turned to the five bandits:-- "Why, that's Monsieur Brujon. Good-evening, Monsieur Babet; good-evening, Monsieur Claquesous. What, don't you know me, Monsieur Gueulemer? How are you, Montparnasse?" "Yes, they know you," said Thénardier; "but now good-night, and be off; leave us alone." "It is the hour of the foxes, and not of the chickens," said Montparnasse. "Don't you see that we have work here?" Babet added. Éponine took Montparnasse by the hand. "Mind," he said, "you will cut yourself, for I have an open knife." "My dear Montparnasse," Éponine replied very gently, "confidence ought to be placed in people, and I am my father's daughter, perhaps. Monsieur Babet, Monsieur Gueulemer, I was ordered to examine into this affair." It is remarkable that Éponine did not speak slang; ever since she had known Marius that frightful language had become impossible to her. She pressed Gueulemer's great coarse fingers in her little bony hand, which was as weak as that of a skeleton, and continued,--"You know very well that I am no fool, and people generally believe me. I have done you a service now and then; well, I have made inquiries, and you would run a needless risk. I swear to you that there is nothing to be done in this house." "There are lone women," said Gueulemer. "No, they have moved away." "Well, the candles haven't," Babet remarked; and he pointed over the trees to a light which was moving about the garret. It was Toussaint, who was up so late in order to hang up some linen to dry. Éponine made a final effort. "Well," she said, "they are very poor people, and there isn't a penny piece in the house." "Go to the devil," cried Thénardier; "when we have turned the house topsy-turvy, and placed the cellar at top and the attics at the bottom, we will tell you what there is inside, and whether they are _balles, ronds, or broques_ [francs, sous, or liards]." And he thrust her away that he might pass. "My kind M. Montparnasse," Éponine said, "I ask you, who are a good fellow, not to go in." "Take care, you'll cut yourself," Montparnasse replied. Thénardier remarked, with that decisive accent of his,-- "Decamp, fairy, and leave men to do their business." Éponine let go Montparnasse's hand, which she had seized again, and said,-- "So you intend to enter this house?" "A little," the ventriloquist said with a grin. She leaned against the railings, faced these six men armed to the teeth, to whom night gave demoniac faces, and said in a firm, low voice,-- "Well, I will not let you!" They stopped in stupefaction, but the ventriloquist completed his laugh. She continued,-- "Friends, listen to me, for it's now my turn to speak. If you enter this garden or touch this railing I will scream, knock at doors, wake people; I will have you all six seized, and call the police." "She is capable of doing it," Thénardier whispered to the ventriloquist and Brujon.