“Ah!” he exclaimed, pushing the dagger back in haste, “you have brought along your gendarme disguised as a bourgeois.”

Montparnasse winked.

“The deuce!” resumed Gavroche, “so you’re going to have a bout with the bobbies?”

“You can’t tell,” replied Montparnasse with an indifferent air. “It’s always a good thing to have a pin about one.”

Gavroche persisted:⁠—

“What are you up to tonight?”

Again Montparnasse took a grave tone, and said, mouthing every syllable: “Things.”

And abruptly changing the conversation:⁠—

“By the way!”