Lost and Found
Just outside the bakery, there were a few chairs and tables, meant for the customers to sit at to enjoy their bread. On this particular afternoon, one of the chairs in a shadowed corner was occupied by a skinny boy of about fourteen years old. He was well-dressed, betraying his bourgeois status, but his eyes were dark and sad, and his black hair was tangled. He hunched, as if trying to make himself smaller.
In short, Marius Pontmercy wanted to disappear. "If it weren't for Aunty, I wouldn't have to sit here!" he thought. Mlle Gillenormand had been more than happy to let him go off on his way while she visited a friend to do 'some charity' for her. However, the pleasure of wandering the neighborhood of Picpus had grown thin, and left Marius hungry.
Now, he sat in a rickety chair, enjoying a small cake while he listened to the uproarious conversation of four young men seated not far away.
"I tell you, Combeferre, we're likely to come down with the influenza that has been going around here," said one of them, a bespectacled medical student who rubbed his nose with his cane.
"Nonsense Joly. We were careful not to stay too long," another medical student said calmly, looking up from his books.
The third person at this table, a boy of about sixteen with reddish-brown hair and a mirthful grin, bit into a sugar-covered cake. "If that is what you do in medical school, I'll take up law when it's my time to study here. Till then, I will remain feckless in the country," he declared.
"How about learning law to prevent people from going unshod and hungry in the country?" the last student in this group said. He had shiny blonde hair and eyes of a piercing blue. Though more serious than the rest, a smile was still on his face.
"Courfeyrac is a laughing knight, and Enjolras the grave one," Combeferre noted.
Marius finished off the last of his cake when he saw three other young people enter the vicinity of the bakeshop. These three were mere children; two girls and a little boy.
"There, we shall get cakes with berries and cream. It will be lovely, won't it, Zelma? What do you think, Vroche?" Eponine giggled.
Azelma laughed, and Gavroche smiled. Marius silently observed the three children flitting from basket to basket of bread and cake, marveling at the delights before them. Suddenly, a clattering sound was heard.
"My coin!" Eponine gasped. She looked around frantically. "Monsieurs, could you please let me look?" she asked, turning to the students seated nearby.
Courfeyrac and Joly were down on all fours right away to help Eponine look for the coin. Enjolras and Combeferre followed suit after moving the chairs aside. Marius stood up to help them when he felt something land by the heel of his shoe. Bending down, he found a gold louis d'or.
"Is this yours, petit?" he asked the girl.
Eponine smiled and ran up to him. "Oh thank you Monsieur!" she squealed. She looked at everyone and her smile grew quizzical.
"I found the coin, but where's my brother?"