Then why not make himself known at once?
When one has a right, one asserts it.
This man evidently had no right over Cosette.
What was it, then?
Thenardier lost himself in conjectures.
He caught glimpses of everything, but he saw nothing.
Be that as it may, on entering into conversation with the man, sure that there was some secret in the case, that the latter had some interest in remaining in the shadow, he felt himself strong; when he perceived from the stranger’s clear and firm retort, that this mysterious personage was mysterious in so simple a way, he became conscious that he was weak.
He had expected nothing of the sort.
His conjectures were put to the rout.
He rallied his ideas. He weighed everything in the space of a second.
Thenardier was one of those men who take in a situation at a glance.
He decided that the moment had arrived for proceeding straightforward, and quickly at that. He did as great leaders do at the decisive moment, which they know that they alone recognize; he abruptly unmasked his batteries.
“Sir,” said he,
“I am in need of fifteen hundred francs.”
The stranger took from his side pocket an old pocketbook of black leather, opened it, drew out three bank-bills, which he laid on the table.
Then he placed his large thumb on the notes and said to the inn-keeper:—
“Go and fetch Cosette.”
While this was taking place, what had Cosette been doing?
On waking up, Cosette had run to get her shoe.
In it she had found the gold piece.
It was not a Napoleon; it was one of those perfectly new twenty-franc pieces of the Restoration, on whose effigy the little Prussian queue had replaced the laurel wreath.
Cosette was dazzled.
Her destiny began to intoxicate her.
She did not know what a gold piece was; she had never seen one; she hid it quickly in her pocket, as though she had stolen it.
Still, she felt that it really was hers; she guessed whence her gift had come, but the joy which she experienced was full of fear.
She was happy; above all she was stupefied.
Such magnificent and beautiful things did not appear real.
The doll frightened her, the gold piece frightened her.
She trembled vaguely in the presence of this magnificence.
The stranger alone did not frighten her.
On the contrary, he reassured her.
Ever since the preceding evening, amid all her amazement, even in her sleep, she had been thinking in her little childish mind of that man who seemed to be so poor and so sad, and who was so rich and so kind.
Everything had changed for her since she had met that good man in the forest.
Cosette, less happy than the most insignificant swallow of heaven, had never known what it was to take refuge under a mother’s shadow and under a wing.
For the last five years, that is to say, as far back as her memory ran, the poor child had shivered and trembled.
She had always been exposed completely naked to the sharp wind of adversity; now it seemed to her she was clothed.
Formerly her soul had seemed cold, now it was warm.
Cosette was no longer afraid of the Thenardier.
She was no longer alone; there was some one there.
She hastily set about her regular morning duties.
That louis, which she had about her, in the very apron pocket whence the fifteen-sou piece had fallen on the night before, distracted her thoughts.
She dared not touch it, but she spent five minutes in gazing at it, with her tongue hanging out, if the truth must be told.
As she swept the staircase, she paused, remained standing there motionless, forgetful of her broom and of the entire universe, occupied in gazing at that star which was blazing at the bottom of her pocket.
It was during one of these periods of contemplation that the Thenardier joined her.
She had gone in search of Cosette at her husband’s orders.
What was quite unprecedented, she neither struck her nor said an insulting word to her.
“Cosette,” she said, almost gently, “come immediately.”
An instant later Cosette entered the public room.
The stranger took up the bundle which he had brought and untied it.
This bundle contained a little woollen gown, an apron, a fustian bodice, a kerchief, a petticoat, woollen stockings, shoes—a complete outfit for a girl of seven years.