Les miserables (Abridged) - Victor Hugo [96]
Monsieur Madeleine immediately sent three hundred francs more, and wrote: “Make haste to bring Cosette.”
“Christy!” said Thénardier, “we won’t let go of the girl.”
Meanwhile Fantine had not recovered. She still remained in the infirmary.
It was not without some repugnance, at first, that the sisters received and cared for “this girl.” He who has seen the bas-reliefs at Rheims will recall the distension of the lower lip of the wise virgins beholding the foolish virgins. This ancient contempt of vestals for less fortunate women is one of the deepest instincts of womanly dignity; the sisters had experienced it with the intensification of Religion. But in a few days Fantine had disarmed them. The motherly tenderness within her, with her soft and touching words, moved them. One day the sisters heard her say in her delirium: “I have been a sinner, but when I shall have my child with me, that will mean that God has pardoned me. While I was bad I would not have had my Cosette with me; I could not have borne her sad and surprised looks. It was for her I sinned, and that is why God forgives me. I shall feel this benediction when Cosette comes. I shall gaze upon her; the sight of her innocence will do me good. She knows nothing of it all. She is an angel, you see, my sisters. At her age the wings have not yet fallen.”
Monsieur Madeleine came to see her twice a day, and at each visit she asked him:
“Shall I see my Cosette soon?”
He answered:
“Perhaps to-morrow. I expect her every moment.”
And the mother’s pale face would brighten.
“Ah!” she would say, “how happy I shall be.”
We have just said she did not recover: on the contrary, her condition seemed to become worse from week to week. That handful of snow applied to the naked skin between her shoulder-blades, had caused a sudden check of perspiration, in consequence of which the disease, which had been forming for some years, at last attacked her violently. They were just at that time beginning in the diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases to follow the fine theory of Laënnec. The doctor sounded her lungs and shook his head.
Monsieur Madeleine said to him:
“Well?”
“Has she not a child she is anxious to see?” said the doctor.
“Yes.”
“Well then, make haste to bring her.”
Monsieur Madeleine gave a shudder.
Fantine asked him: “What did the doctor say?”
Monsieur Madeleine tried to smile.
“He told us to bring your child at once. That will restore your health.”
“Oh!” she cried, “he is right. But what is the matter with these Thenardiers that they keep my Cosette from me? Oh! She is coming! Here at last I see happiness near me.”
The Thénardiers, however, did not “let go of the child;” they gave a hundred bad reasons. Cosette was too delicate to travel in the winter time, and then there were a number of little petty debts, of which they were collecting the bills, etc., etc.
“I will send somebody for Cosette,” said Monsieur Madeleine, “if necessary, I will go myself.”
He wrote at Fantine’s dictation this letter, which she signed. “Monsieur Thénardier:
”You will deliver Cosette to the bearer. “He will settle all small debts. ”I have the honour to salute you with consideration.
“FANTINE.”
At this juncture a serious incident intervened. In vain we chisel, as best we can, the mysterious block of which our life is made, the black vein of destiny reappears continually.
2
HOW JEAN CAN BECOME CHAMP
ONE MORNING Monsieur Madeleine was in his office arranging for some pressing business of the mayoralty, in case he should decide to go to Montfermeil himself, when he was informed that Javert, the inspector of police, wished to speak with him. On hearing this name spoken, Monsieur Madeleine could not repress a disagreeable impression. Since the affair