Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the forty-eighth chapter of Les Miserables.
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Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to bite at a time books where we read you your
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Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Today well be continuing.
Speaker:Les Miserable by Victor Hugo
Speaker:chapter nine Madame
Speaker:victorian success
Speaker:so the monks widow was good for something,
Speaker:but Monsieur Madeleine had heard nothing of all
Speaker:this. Life is full of just such
Speaker:combinations of events. Monsieur
Speaker:Madeleine was in the habit of almost never entering the womens
Speaker:workroom at, ah, the head of this room he had placed
Speaker:an elderly spinster whom the priest had
Speaker:provided for him, and he had full confidence
Speaker:in the superintendent, a truly
Speaker:respectable person, firm,
Speaker:equitable, upright, full of the
Speaker:charity which consists in giving, but
Speaker:not having in the same degree that charity which consists
Speaker:in understanding and in forgiving.
Speaker:Monsieur, Madeleine relied wholly on her. The
Speaker:best men are often obliged to delegate their authority.
Speaker:It was with this full power and the conviction that
Speaker:she was doing right, that that the superintendent had
Speaker:instituted the suit, judged, condemned,
Speaker:and executed Fantine as
Speaker:regards the 50 francs she had given them from a fund
Speaker:which Monsieur Madeleine had entrusted to her for charitable
Speaker:purposes and for giving assistance to the
Speaker:workwomen, and of which she rendered no account.
Speaker:Fantine tried to obtain a situation as a servant in the
Speaker:neighborhood. She went from house to house.
Speaker:No one would have her. She could not leave
Speaker:town. The second hand stealer, to whom she was in
Speaker:debt for her furniture. And what
Speaker:furniture, said to her, if you leave, I will
Speaker:have you arrested as a thief. The
Speaker:householder whom she owed for her rent, said to her, you are
Speaker:young and pretty. You can pay.
Speaker:She divided the 50 francs between the landlord and the
Speaker:furniture dealer, returned to the latter. Three
Speaker:quarters of his goods kept only necessaries,
Speaker:and found herself without work, without a trade,
Speaker:with nothing but her bed, and still about 50 francs
Speaker:in debt. She began to make coarse shirts
Speaker:for soldiers of the garrison. And earned twelve sous
Speaker:a day. Her daughter cost her ten.
Speaker:It was at this point that she began to pay the thenardiers
Speaker:regularly. However, the old woman who lighted her
Speaker:candle for her when she returned at night. Taught her the art
Speaker:of living in misery. Back of living on
Speaker:little. There is the living on nothing.
Speaker:These are the two chambers. The first is
Speaker:dark. The second is black.
Speaker:Fantine learned how to live without fire entirely in the
Speaker:winter. How to give up a bird which eats a half a
Speaker:farthings worth of millet every two days. How to make
Speaker:a coverlet of ones petticoat and a
Speaker:petticoat of ones coverlet. How to save ones
Speaker:candle by taking ones meals by the light of the opposite
Speaker:window. No one knows all that certain
Speaker:feeble creatures. Who have grown old in privation and
Speaker:honesty. Can, get out of a sue. It
Speaker:ends by being a talent. Fantine
Speaker:acquired this sublime talent. And regained a little
Speaker:courage at this epoch. She said to a
Speaker:neighbor, I say to
Speaker:myself, by only sleeping 5 hours.
Speaker:And working all the rest of the time at my sewing,
Speaker:I shall always manage to nearly earn my bread.
Speaker:And then, when one is sad, one eats less
Speaker:well. Sufferings, uneasiness. A little
Speaker:bread on one hand, trouble on the other.
Speaker:All this will support me. It would have been
Speaker:a great happiness to have her little girl with her in this distress.
Speaker:She thought of having her come. But what
Speaker:then? Make her share her own destitution?
Speaker:And then she was in debt to the thenardiers.
Speaker:How could she pay them? And a journey.
Speaker:How pay for that? The old woman who had given
Speaker:her lessons in what may be called the life of indigence.
Speaker:Was a sainted spinster named Marguerite,
Speaker:who was pious, with a true piety,
Speaker:poor and charitable towards the poor
Speaker:and even towards the rich. Knowing how to write
Speaker:just sufficiently to sign herself, Marguerite.
Speaker:And believing in God, which is science,
Speaker:there are many such virtuous people in this lower world.
Speaker:Someday they will be in the world above. This
Speaker:life has a morrow. At first, Fantine
Speaker:had been so ashamed she, had not dared to go
Speaker:out. When she was in the street. She divined that
Speaker:people turned round behind her and pointed at her.
Speaker:Everyone stared at her, and no one greeted her.
Speaker:The cold and bitter scorn of the passersby penetrated her
Speaker:very flesh and soul like a north wind.
Speaker:It seems as though an unfortunate woman were utterly bare
Speaker:beneath the sarcasm. In the curiosity of all. In small
Speaker:towns in Paris. At least
Speaker:no one knows you in this obscurity. Its a
Speaker:garment. Oh, how she would have liked to betake
Speaker:herself to Paris. Impossible.
Speaker:She was obliged to accustom herself to
Speaker:disrepute as, she had accustomed herself to
Speaker:indigence. Gradually, she decided on her
Speaker:course. At the expiration of two or three
Speaker:months, she shook off her shame and began to go about as though there
Speaker:were nothing the matter. It is all the same to
Speaker:me, she said. She went
Speaker:and came, baring her head well up with a
Speaker:bitter smile, and was conscious that she was becoming
Speaker:brazen faced. Madame
Speaker:Victorian sometimes saw her passing from her window,
Speaker:noticed, the distress of that creature
Speaker:who, thanks to her, had been put back in her proper
Speaker:place and congratulated herself.
Speaker:The happiness of the evil minded is black.
Speaker:Excess of toil wore out fantine, and
Speaker:the little dry cough which troubled her increased.
Speaker:She sometimes said to her neighbor Marguerite,
Speaker:just feel how hot my hands are.
Speaker:Nevertheless, when she combed her beautiful hair in the morning
Speaker:with an old broken comb and it flowed about her
Speaker:like floss silk, she experienced a
Speaker:moment of happy coquetry.
Speaker:Thank you for joining bite at a time books today, while we read.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: A bite of one of your favorite classics.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Again, my name is Brie Carlisle, and
Speaker:I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite
Speaker:of le miserable.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: dont forget to sign up for our
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