SOME CATS OF FRANCE 213 



dignity. Gavroche was a born Bohemian, enam 

 oured of low company, and of the careless come 

 dies of life. Their sister Eponine best loved of 

 the three was a delicate, fastidious little creature, 

 with an exquisite sense of propriety, and of the 

 refinements of social intercourse. Enjolras was 

 a glutton, caring for nothing so much as for his 

 dinner. Gavroche, more generous, would bring 

 in from the streets gaunt and ragged cats, who 

 devoured in a scurry of fright the food laid aside 

 for him. &quot; I was often tempted to remonstrate,&quot; 

 writes Gautier, &quot; and to say to the little scamp, 

 A nice lot of friends you do pick up ! But I re 

 frained. After all, it was an amiable weakness. 

 He might have eaten his dinner himself.&quot; 



Eponine was piquant rather than beautiful. Her 

 little velvety nose looked like a fine truffle of Peri- 

 gord. Her eyes had the oblique slant of the Orient, 

 and were sea-green like the eyes of Pallas-Athene, 

 or of that fair Dame de Eayel, to whom the Sire 

 de Coucy, dying in the Holy Land, sent back his 

 heart by a trusted squire, and whose husband, dis 

 covering the contents of the box, forced her to eat it, 

 of which horror she died. In the Sire de Coucy s 

 passionate verses, his lady s eyes are described as 

 green &quot;like a cat s ; &quot; for no other colour, cries the 

 lover rapturously, can inspire ardour and adoration 

 in the human heart. 



