This laugh was the supreme signification of certainty and authority; what was said in this way must be. The wife made no objection, but began arranging the tables, while her husband walked up and down the room; a moment after he added,—
"Why, I owe fifteen hundred francs."
He sat down in the ingle-nook, meditating with his feet in the warm ashes.
"By the bye," the wife continued, "you don't forget that I mean to bundle out Cosette to-day? The monster! she eats my heart with her doll; I would sooner marry Louis XVIII. than keep her a day longer in the house."
Thénardier lit his pipe, and said between two puffs,—"You will hand the man the bill."
Then he went out, and had scarce left the room ere the traveller entered; Thénardier at once appeared behind and stood in the half-open door, only visible to his wife. The yellow man carried his stick and bundle in his hand.
"Up so soon?" the landlady said. "Are you going to leave us already, sir?"
While speaking this, she turned the bill in her hands with an embarrassed air and made folds in it with her nails; her harsh face had an unusual look of timidity and scruple. It seemed to her difficult to present such a bill to a man who looked so thoroughly poor. The traveller seemed absent and preoccupied, as he replied,—
"Yes, Madame, I am going."
"Then you had no business to transact at Montfermeil, sir?" she continued.