________________________________________________
_ On the following day, at the same hour, Jean Valjean came.
Cosette asked him no questions, was no longer astonished, no longer
exclaimed that she was cold, no longer spoke of the drawing-room,
she avoided saying either "father" or "Monsieur Jean." She allowed
herself to be addressed as you. She allowed herself to be
called Madame. Only, her joy had undergone a certain diminution.
She would have been sad, if sadness had been possible to her.
It is probable that she had had with Marius one of those conversations
in which the beloved man says what he pleases, explains nothing,
and satisfies the beloved woman. The curiosity of lovers does
not extend very far beyond their own love.
The lower room had made a little toilet. Basque had suppressed
the bottles, and Nicolette the spiders.
All the days which followed brought Jean Valjean at the same hour.
He came every day, because he had not the strength to take Marius'
words otherwise than literally. Marius arranged matters so as to
be absent at the hours when Jean Valjean came. The house grew
accustomed to the novel ways of M. Fauchelevent. Toussaint helped
in this direction: "Monsieur has always been like that," she repeated.
The grandfather issued this decree:--"He's an original." And all
was said. Moreover, at the age of ninety-six, no bond is any longer
possible, all is merely juxtaposition; a newcomer is in the way.
There is no longer any room; all habits are acquired. M. Fauchelevent,
M. Tranchelevent, Father Gillenormand asked nothing better than
to be relieved from "that gentleman." He added:--"Nothing is more
common than those originals. They do all sorts of queer things.
They have no reason. The Marquis de Canaples was still worse.
He bought a palace that he might lodge in the garret. These are
fantastic appearances that people affect."
No one caught a glimpse of the sinister foundation. And moreover,
who could have guessed such a thing? There are marshes of this
description in India. The water seems extraordinary, inexplicable,
rippling though there is no wind, and agitated where it should
be calm. One gazes at the surface of these causeless ebullitions;
one does not perceive the hydra which crawls on the bottom.
Many men have a secret monster in this same manner, a dragon
which gnaws them, a despair which inhabits their night. Such a man
resembles other men, he goes and comes. No one knows that he
bears within him a frightful parasitic pain with a thousand teeth,
which lives within the unhappy man, and of which he is dying.
No one knows that this man is a gulf. He is stagnant but deep.
From time to time, a trouble of which the onlooker understands
nothing appears on his surface. A mysterious wrinkle is formed,
then vanishes, then re-appears; an air-bubble rises and bursts.
It is the breathing of the unknown beast.
Certain strange habits: arriving at the hour when other people
are taking their leave, keeping in the background when other people
are displaying themselves, preserving on all occasions what may be
designated as the wall-colored mantle, seeking the solitary walk,
preferring the deserted street, avoiding any share in conversation,
avoiding crowds and festivals, seeming at one's ease and living
poorly, having one's key in one's pocket, and one's candle at the
porter's lodge, however rich one may be, entering by the side door,
ascending the private staircase,--all these insignificant singularities,
fugitive folds on the surface, often proceed from a formidable foundation.
Many weeks passed in this manner. A new life gradually took possession
of Cosette: the relations which marriage creates, visits, the care
of the house, pleasures, great matters. Cosette's pleasures were
not costly, they consisted in one thing: being with Marius. The great
occupation of her life was to go out with him, to remain with him.
It was for them a joy that was always fresh, to go out arm in arm,
in the face of the sun, in the open street, without hiding themselves,
before the whole world, both of them completely alone.
Cosette had one vexation. Toussaint could not get on with Nicolette,
the soldering of two elderly maids being impossible, and she went away.
The grandfather was well; Marius argued a case here and there;
Aunt Gillenormand peacefully led that life aside which sufficed for her,
beside the new household. Jean Valjean came every day.
The address as thou disappeared, the you, the "Madame," the
"Monsieur Jean," rendered him another person to Cosette. The care
which he had himself taken to detach her from him was succeeding.
She became more and more gay and less and less tender. Yet she
still loved him sincerely, and he felt it.
One day she said to him suddenly: "You used to be my father, you are
no longer my father, you were my uncle, you are no longer my uncle,
you were Monsieur Fauchelevent, you are Jean. Who are you then?
I don't like all this. If I did not know how good you are, I should
be afraid of you."
He still lived in the Rue de l'Homme Arme, because he could not make
up his mind to remove to a distance from the quarter where Cosette dwelt.
At first, he only remained a few minutes with Cosette, and then
went away.
Little by little he acquired the habit of making his visits less brief.
One would have said that he was taking advantage of the authorization
of the days which were lengthening, he arrived earlier and departed later.
One day Cosette chanced to say "father" to him. A flash
of joy illuminated Jean Valjean's melancholy old countenance.
He caught her up: "Say Jean."--"Ah! truly," she replied with a
burst of laughter, "Monsieur Jean."--"That is right," said he.
And he turned aside so that she might not see him wipe his eyes. _
Read next: VOLUME V: BOOK EIGHTH - FADING AWAY OF THE TWILIGHT: CHAPTER III. They Recall the Garden of the Rue Plumet
Read previous: VOLUME V: BOOK EIGHTH - FADING AWAY OF THE TWILIGHT: CHAPTER I. The Lower Chamber
Table of content of Les Miserables
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
