Then he energetically turned back on his chest the two scarlet points
of the waistcoat, and, walking up to Enjolras, whispered in his ear,
"Never fear!" He boldly cocked his hat, and went out. A quarter of an
hour after, the back-room of the Café Musain was deserted, and all the
Friends of the A. B. C. were going in various directions about their
business. Enjolras, who had reserved the Cougourde for himself, was
the last to leave. The Members of the Aix Cougourde who were in Paris
assembled at that period on the plain of Issy, in one of the abandoned
quarries so numerous on that side of Paris.
Enjolras, while walking toward the meeting-place, took a mental review
of the situation. The gravity of the events was visible, for when
the facts which are the forerunners of latent social disease move
heavily, the slightest complication checks and impedes their action. It
is a phenomenon from which collapse and regeneration issue. Enjolras
caught a glimpse of a luminous upheaving behind the dark clouds of
the future. Who knew whether the moment might not be at hand when the
people would seize their rights once again? What a splendid spectacle!
the revolution majestically taking possession of France once more,
and saying to the world, "To be continued to-morrow!" Enjolras was
satisfied, for the furnace was aglow, and he had at that self-same
moment a gunpowder train of friends scattered over Paris. He mentally
compared Combeferre's philosophic and penetrating eloquence, Feuilly's
cosmopolitan enthusiasm, Courfeyrac's humor, Bahorel's laugh, Jean
Prouvaire's melancholy, Joly's learning, and Bossuet's sarcasms,
to a species of electrical flash, which produced fire everywhere
simultaneously. All were at work, and most certainly the result
would respond to the effort. That was good, and it made him think of
Grantaire. "Ah," he said to himself, "the Barrière du Maine is hardly
at all out of my way, so suppose I go on to Richefeu's and see what
Grantaire is doing, and how far he has got."
It was striking one by the Vaugirard church when Enjolras reached
Richefeu's. He pushed open the door, went in, folded his arms, and
looked about the room, which was full of tables, men, and tobacco
smoke. A voice was audible in this fog, sharply interrupted by another
voice,--it was Grantaire talking with some opponent of his. Grantaire
was seated opposite another man, at a marble table covered with sawdust
and studded with dominoes. He smote the marble with his fist, and this
is what Enjolras heard:--
"Double six."
"A four."
"The pig! I haven't any left."
"You are dead. A two."
"A six."
"A three."
"An ace."
"My set."
"Four points."
"With difficulty."
"It is yours."
"I made an enormous mistake."
"You are getting on all right."
"Fifteen."
"Seven more."
"That makes me twenty-two [pensively]. Twenty-two!"
"You did not expect the double six. Had I played it at first it would
have changed the whole game."
"Double two."
"An ace."
"An ace! well, a five!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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