For a long moment, Grantaire stares; then, carefully, he places an unsteady hand on the door. It swings wider, and Grantaire grips it more tightly, for balance.

"Did you expect," he says, after a moment, forming his words with careful enunciation, "that I would be amazed? Never think it. Your arrival, Enjolras, exhausted my capacity for it. Now I should not be surprised if the great pear himself were to walk in the door tomorrow. Bossuet has come? Very well. Punctuality was never his strong suit."

For all his care, his voice is shaking, very slightly.