"I am going off, but you will not go off."
One dog may distract another;[2] a very thin whelp passed, and Gavroche felt pity for it.
"My poor little creature," he said to it, "you must have swallowed a barrel, as you show all the hoops."
Then he proceeded toward the Orme St. Gervais.
[1] The hammer of a pistol is called a dog in France.
[2] Another allusion to the hammer (chien) of the pistol.
[CHAPTER III.]
JUST INDIGNATION OF A BARBER.
The worthy barber who had turned out the two children for whom Gavroche had opened the elephant's paternal intestines, was at this moment in his shop, engaged in shaving an old legionary who had served under the Empire. The barber had naturally spoken to the veteran about the riot, then about General Lamarque, and from Lamarque they had come to the Emperor. Hence arose a conversation between the barber and the soldier which Prudhomme, had he been present, would have enriched with arabesques, and entitled, "A dialogue between a razor and a sabre."