Gaston Leroux

“ If there was any danger, Balaoo would be here by now."
"Ah, there's a man for you, there's a man!" Hubert repeated, enthusiastically.
"You'd better give him our sister for a wife," grinned Siméon, drawing himself up on his enormous feet and swaying from one to the other, like an opossum.
"Why not? " asked Élie.
"Soon as he likes," said Hubert. "When shall we have the banns?"
"I believe there's nothing the kid would like better," said Siméon, whistling down the barrel of his gun.
"He's not hunch-backed, the citizen; and he's not bandy-legged; and he's no slouch on his feet!" ”

“ Balaoo gave a growl and, without ceremony, spat at Siméon's feet: an invariable sign of his displeasure. And, lest there should be any doubt about it, he grunted:
"I don't like people to talk about marriage in my presence!"
There was a chilly pause. Hubert thought it wise to say, in a soft voice:
"There's nothing to upset you, Balaoo, in that remark. Zoé will have to marry some day."
"That's her business!" jerked Balaoo, with swelling cheeks and temples.
"And you too, Balaoo! You must, you know, someday! . . ."
"I!" roared the pithecanthrope, springing up. "I! Marry! Marry a man-girl! Never! ”

“ And the doctor set great store by his finger!
Élie had cut off the finger; Hubert, who knew the virtue of herbs, had dressed it properly and bound up the bleeding stump; Siméon had explained:
"You understand that, if we meant to hurt you, we should not cut off your finger. Follow my argument: you represent to us the most precious thing in the world, our lives. We shall restore you to your friends on the day when the President of the Republic announces in his official gazette that our death-sentence has been commuted into anything he pleases. The hulks! We're not there yet! ”

“ His anguish can be easily imagined; and, in spite of the abject cowardice displayed by the worthy doctor on the previous night, when the Vautrins were besieging the Black Sun, it would be unfair to despise him altogether. The poor man knew that, from the instant that the Three Brothers escaped their gaolers, he himself was doomed to suffer martyrdom. His evidence was designed to send the Vautrins to the scaffold. He had a pretty shrewd notion of what they would say to him, now that they were free. And that was more than enough to make a man lose his nerve! ”

“ They were fellows who were never happy among men, with their eternal game-laws; and in reality they enjoyed themselves in decent society only at election-times, which are heavenly times on earth.
They slept; but Dr. Honorat did not sleep. Seated at the foot of the oak to which he was firmly tethered by one ankle, he was still, though he suffered great pain from the loss of his little finger, thinking of the skill with which the amputation had been performed. ”

“ As told me that they are going to attack you from every side at the same time. As is giving the alarm to all the animals, like the funk that he is. All the inhabitants of the forest have gone to their homes and are lying low and barricading their doors and shivering. ”