Part 208 (1/2)
”Beginning with my father!”
Thenardier stepped nearer.
”Not so close, my good man!” said she.
He retreated, growling between his teeth:--
”Why, what's the matter with her?”
And he added:--
”b.i.t.c.h!”
She began to laugh in a terrible way:--
”As you like, but you shall not enter here. I'm not the daughter of a dog, since I'm the daughter of a wolf. There are six of you, what matters that to me? You are men. Well, I'm a woman. You don't frighten me. I tell you that you shan't enter this house, because it doesn't suit me. If you approach, I'll bark. I told you, I'm the dog, and I don't care a straw for you. Go your way, you bore me! Go where you please, but don't come here, I forbid it! You can use your knives. I'll use kicks; it's all the same to me, come on!”
She advanced a pace nearer the ruffians, she was terrible, she burst out laughing:--
”Pardine! I'm not afraid. I shall be hungry this summer, and I shall be cold this winter. Aren't they ridiculous, these ninnies of men, to think they can scare a girl! What! Scare? Oh, yes, much! Because you have finical poppets of mistresses who hide under the bed when you put on a big voice, forsooth! I ain't afraid of anything, that I ain't!”
She fastened her intent gaze upon Thenardier and said:--
”Not even of you, father!”
Then she continued, as she cast her blood-shot, spectre-like eyes upon the ruffians in turn:--
”What do I care if I'm picked up to-morrow morning on the pavement of the Rue Plumet, killed by the blows of my father's club, or whether I'm found a year from now in the nets at Saint-Cloud or the Isle of Swans in the midst of rotten old corks and drowned dogs?”
She was forced to pause; she was seized by a dry cough, her breath came from her weak and narrow chest like the death-rattle.
She resumed:--
”I have only to cry out, and people will come, and then slap, bang!
There are six of you; I represent the whole world.”
Thenardier made a movement towards her.
”Don't approach!” she cried.
He halted, and said gently:--
”Well, no; I won't approach, but don't speak so loud. So you intend to hinder us in our work, my daughter? But we must earn our living all the same. Have you no longer any kind feeling for your father?”
”You bother me,” said Eponine.
”But we must live, we must eat--”
”Burst!”