He usually went away about midnight, and returned to Courfeyrac’s lodgings. Courfeyrac said to Bahorel:⁠—

“Would you believe it? Marius comes home nowadays at one o’clock in the morning.”

Bahorel replied:⁠—

“What do you expect? There’s always a petard in a seminary fellow.”

At times, Courfeyrac folded his arms, assumed a serious air, and said to Marius:⁠—

“You are getting irregular in your habits, young man.”

Courfeyrac, being a practical man, did not take in good part this reflection of an invisible paradise upon Marius; he was not much in the habit of concealed passions; it made him impatient, and now and then he called upon Marius to come back to reality.

One morning, he threw him this admonition:⁠—