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Les Miserables - Volume 1 - Book 5 - Chapter 3
Episode 4226th May 2024 • Bite at a Time Books • Bree Carlile
00:00:00 00:11:06

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Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the forty-second chapter of Les Miserables.

Come with us as we release one bite a day of one of your favorite classic novels, plays & short stories. Bree reads these classics like she reads to her daughter, one chapter a day. If you love books or audiobooks and want something to listen to as you're getting ready, driving to work, or as you're getting ready for bed, check out Bite at a Time Books!

Follow, rate, and review Bite at a Time Books where we read you your favorite classics, one bite at a time. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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We are now part of the Bite at a Time Books Productions network!

If you ever wondered what inspired your favorite classic novelist to write their stories, what was happening in their lives or the world at the time, check out Bite at a Time Books Behind the Story wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Transcripts

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>> Speaker A: Take a look, in the book and let's see

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what we can find.

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Take it chapter by chapter. One

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fight M at a time.

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>> Brie Carlisle: So.

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>> Speaker A: Many adventures and mountains

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we can climb

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to give word for word, line by

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line, one bite at a time.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to bite at a time books where we read you your

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favorite classics one byte at a time. my name is

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Bre Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to

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share my passion with listeners like you. If you

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want to know whats coming next and vote on upcoming

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books, sign up for our

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newsletter@biteattimebooks.com dot.

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Youll also find our new t shirts in the shop,

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including podcast shirts and quote shirts from your

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favorite classic novels. Be sure to follow my

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show on your favorite podcast platform so you get all the new

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episodes. You can find most of our links in the

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show notes, but also our website,

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byteadatimebooks.com includes all of the links for

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our show, including to our Patreon to

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support the show and YouTube, where we have special

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behind the narration of the episodes were part

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of the byte at a Time Books productions network. If

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youd also like to hear what inspired your favorite classic

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authors to write their novels and what was going

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on in the world at the time, check out the bite at a

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time books behind the story podcast. Wherever

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you listen to podcasts, please note

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while we try to keep the text as close to the original as

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possible, some words have been changed

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to honor the marginalized communities whove identified the

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words as harmful and to stay in alignment

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with Byte at a time books brand values.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Today well be continuing les miserable

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by Victor Hugo

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chapter three sommes deposited

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with Lafitte. On the

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other hand, he remained as simple as on the first

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day. He had gray hair, a

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serious eye, the sunburned complexion of a

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laborer, the thoughtful visage of a

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philosopher. He habitually wore a hat

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with a wide brim and a long coat of coarse

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cloth buttoned to the chin. He fulfilled

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his duties as mayor, but with that exception he

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lived in solitude. He spoke to but

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few people. He avoided polite

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attentions. He escaped quickly.

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He smiled to relieve himself of the necessity of

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talking. He gave in order to get rid of

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the necessity for smiling. The women said of

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him what a good natured bear.

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His pleasure consisted in strolling in the fields.

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He always took his meals alone with an open book before

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him, which he read. He had a

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well selected little library. He loved

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books. Books are cold but safe

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friends in proportion as leisure came

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to him with fortune. He seemed to take advantage of it to

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cultivate his mind it had been observed that

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ever since his arrival at M. Surim M. His language had grown

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more polished, more choice, and more gentle

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with every passing year. He liked to carry

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a gun with him on strolls, but he rarely made use of

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it when he did happen to do so. His

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shooting was something so infallible as to inspire

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terror. He never killed an inoffensive

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animal. he never shot at a little bird. Although

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he was no longer young, it was thought that he was still

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prodigiously strong. He offered his

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assistance to anyone who was in need of it, lifted

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a horse, released a wheel, clogged in the mud, or

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stopped a runaway bull by the horns. He

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always had his pockets full of money when he went out,

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but they were empty on his return. When he

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passed through a village, the ragged brats ran joyously

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after him and surrounded him like a swarm of

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gnats. It was thought that he must,

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in the past, have lived a country life, since he knew

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all sorts of useful secrets which he taught to the peasants.

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He taught them how to destroy scurf on wheat by

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sprinkling it in the granary and inundating the cracks

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on the floor with a solution of common salt. And

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how to chase away weevils by hanging up, orvate and bloom

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everywhere, on the walls and the ceilings,

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among the grass and in the houses. He

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had recipes for exterminating from a field

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blight, tares, foxtail, and all parasitic

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growths which destroy the wheat. He defended a

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rabbit warren against rats simply by the odor of a

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guinea pig, which he placed in it. One day

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he saw some country people busily engaged in pulling up

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medals. He examined the plants which were

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uprooted, and already Dryden said,

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they are dead. Nevertheless, it would be

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a good thing to know how to make use of them. When the

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nettle is young, the leaf makes an excellent vegetable.

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When it is older, it has filaments and fibers like

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hemp and flax. Nettle cloth is as good as

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linen cloth. Chopped up nettles are good for

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poultry. Pounded, they are good for horned

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cattle. The seed of the nettle mixed with fodder

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gives gloss to the hair of animals. The root

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mixed with salt, produces a beautiful yellow coloring

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matter. Moreover, it is an excellent

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hay, which can be cut twice. And what is

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required for the nettle? A, little soil, no

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care, no culture. Only the seed falls

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as it is ripe, and it is difficult to collect it.

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That is all. With the, exercise of a little

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care, the nettle could be made useful. It is

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neglected, and it becomes hurtful it is

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exterminated how many men resemble the

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nettle, he added after a pause.

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Remember this, my friends. There are no such things as

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bad plants or bad men. There are only bad

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cultivators. The children loved him because

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he knew how to make charming little trifles of straw and

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coconuts. When he saw the door of a church hung in

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black, he entered. He sought out

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funerals as other men seek christenings.

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Widowhood and the grief of others attracted him because of

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his great gentleness. He mingled with the friends

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clad in mourning, with families dressed in

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black. With the priests groaning around a

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coffin. He seemed to like to give to

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his thoughts for text. These funeral psalmodies

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filled with the vision of the other world. With his eyes

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fixed on heaven, he listened with a sort of aspiration

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towards all the mysteries of the infinite, those sad

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voices which sing on the verge of the obscure abyss of

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death. He performed a multitude of good

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actions, concealing his agency in them, as a man

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conceals himself because of evil actions.

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He penetrated houses privately. At night.

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He ascended staircases furtively.

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A poor wretch, on returning to his attic. Would find that his

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door had been opened, sometimes even forced.

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During his absence. The poor man made

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a clamor over it. Some malfactor had been

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there. He entered, and the first thing he beheld

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was a piece of gold lying forgotten on, some piece of furniture.

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The malefactor who had been there was Father Madeleine.

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He was affable and sad. The people

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said, theres a rich man who has not a haughty heir.

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Theres a happy man who has not a contented air.

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Some people maintained that he was a mysterious

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person and that no one ever entered his

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chamber, which was a regular anchorite cell,

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furnished with winged hourglasses and enlivened

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by crossbones and skulls of dead men.

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This was much talked of so that one of

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the elegant and malicious young women of M. Sur m m. Came to

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him one day and asked, Monsieur le Maire,

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pray show us your chamber. It is said to be a

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grotto. He smiled and introduced

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them instantly into this grotto. They were well

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punished for their curiosity. The room was very

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simply furnished in mahogany, which was

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rather ugly, like all furniture of that sort,

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and hung with paper worth twelve sous.

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They could see nothing remarkable about it except two

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candlesticks of antique pattern. Which stood on the chimney piece

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and appeared to be silver. For they were

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hallmarked an observation full of the type of wit

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of petty towns. Nevertheless,

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people continued to say that no one ever got into the

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room and that it was a hermits cave, a

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mysterious retreat, a hole, a

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tomb. It was also whispered about that he

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had immense sums deposited with lafitte,

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with.

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>> Brie Carlisle: This peculiar feature that they were always.

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>> Brie Carlisle: At his immediate disposal. So that it was

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added, Monsieur Madeleine could make his appearance at

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Lafitte any morning, sign a receipt, and

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carry off his two or three millions in ten minutes.

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In reality, these two or three millions were

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reducible, as we have said, to

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630 or 40,000 francs.

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Thank you for joining bite at a time books today. while we read a

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bite of one of your favorite classics. Again,

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my name is Brie carlisle, and I hope you come back

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tomorrow for the next bite of le

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Miserable.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Dont forget to sign up for our

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newsletter@byteadatimebooks.com, and

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check out the shop. You can check out the show notes

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or our website, biteadatatimebooks.com,

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for the rest of the links for our show. Wed love

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to hear from you on social media as well.

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>> Speaker A: Broken. Broken. Let's see what

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we can find.

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Take a chapter by chapter, one

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night at a time.

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by line, one bite at a time.

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