Grantaire, meanwhile, weaves his way along the route he had described to Enjolras.
Well! He is a jug, to be filled, with wine or with purpose, either one. Though he has no convictions, still he can speak; there exist convictions enough in the world, without him adding to their number. Quotes, endless quotes, inutterable declamations, he has them stored up in his mind: "The Author of Nature has bound all mortals by a boundless chain of love and happiness; perish the tyrants who have dared to break it!" This, declaimed in the Rue de Vaugirard; then, as he passes the Carmelites, in a sing-song, "We must dare, dare again, always dare, and France is saved!" -- and then a policeman in the Rue d'Assas, and he swerves hastily away, a harmless drunkard once more, until he is safely in the Rue de Cherche-Midi, and free to announce again to the air, "Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable!"
Thus armed with a red waistcoat and a sense of purpose, he approaches the Barrière du Maine.
no subject
Well! He is a jug, to be filled, with wine or with purpose, either one. Though he has no convictions, still he can speak; there exist convictions enough in the world, without him adding to their number. Quotes, endless quotes, inutterable declamations, he has them stored up in his mind: "The Author of Nature has bound all mortals by a boundless chain of love and happiness; perish the tyrants who have dared to break it!" This, declaimed in the Rue de Vaugirard; then, as he passes the Carmelites, in a sing-song, "We must dare, dare again, always dare, and France is saved!" -- and then a policeman in the Rue d'Assas, and he swerves hastily away, a harmless drunkard once more, until he is safely in the Rue de Cherche-Midi, and free to announce again to the air, "Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable!"
Thus armed with a red waistcoat and a sense of purpose, he approaches the Barrière du Maine.