Inevitably, the revolutionary fever spreads. Secret societies, increasingly defiant, proliferate and spread like a cancer through the body politic. First Paris is infected, then the provinces. Marius' old friends take an active part in the seditious activities. A.B.C. leader Enjolras dispatches his lieutenants to various groups of students and workers to organize them for the revolution. Enjolras reserves for himself the group known as La Cougourde. On his way to meet them, he mulls over the situation and optimistically foresees a glorious uprising leading to the ultimate emancipation of the people.
A slight disappointment, however, mars his grandiose vision. In passing he decides to inspect the work of his friend Grantaire, the cynic who has only become a revolutionary out of admiration for Enjolras. Instead of haranguing the workers whose revolutionary fervor he was supposed to excite, Grantaire is engaged in an absorbing game of dominoes with them.
