his peregrinations; introducing him with all the airs of a condescending prince. The poor wretch, with drooping ears, sidelong glance, and tail between his legs, fearing that his free lunch might at any moment be interrupted by the housemaid's broom, would gobble down double, triple, quadruple mouthfuls, and like Siete-Aguas, or Seven Waters, of the Spanish posada, make the plate in a few seconds as clean as though it had been scrubbed by a Dutch housewife to serve as a model to Mieris or Gerard Dow.
Beholding these chosen protégés of Gavroche's, that phrase with which Gavarni illustrates one of his caricatures frequently came into our head: "Fine friends these are which you have selected to go about with!" But after all they were only a proof of Gavroche's real goodness of heart; for he might easily have eaten up everything himself.
