And, indeed, the uncle and the niece having met by
chance, ended by consorting together, their favorite refuge, it was
thought, being the limekilns in the direction of Les Moulineaux.
One day then it happened that Alexandre upon calling at Norine's there
encountered Alfred, who came at times to try to extract a half-franc from
old Moineaud, his father. The two young bandits went off together,
chatted, and met again. And from that chance encounter there sprang a
band. Alexandre was living with Richard, and Alfred brought Toinette to
them. Thus they were four in number, and the customary developments
followed: begging at first, the girl putting out her hand at the
instigation of the three prowlers, who remained on the watch and drew
alms by force at nighttime from belated bourgeois encountered in dark
corners; next came vulgar vice and its wonted attendant, blackmail; and
then theft, petty larceny to begin with, the pilfering of things
displayed for sale by shopkeepers, and afterwards more serious affairs,
premeditated expeditions, mapped out like real war plans.
The band slept wherever it could; now in suspicious dingy doss-houses,
now on waste ground.
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