Page 2436 - les-miserables

made me remain near you. I was therefore forced to hold my
peace. If I had spoken, it would have caused embarrassment
in every way.’
‘It would have embarrassed what? embarrassed whom?’
retorted Marius. ‘Do you think that you are going to stay
here? We shall carry you off. Ah! good heavens! when I re-
flect that it was by an accident that I have learned all this.
You form a part of ourselves. You are her father, and mine.
You shall not pass another day in this dreadful house. Do
not imagine that you will be here to-morrow.’
‘To-morrow,’ said Jean Valjean, ‘I shall not be here, but I
shall not be with you.’
‘What do you mean?’ replied Marius. ‘Ah! come now, we
are not going to permit any more journeys. You shall never
leave us again. You belong to us. We shall not loose our hold
of you.’
‘This time it is for good,’ added Cosette. ‘We have a car-
riage at the door. I shall run away with you. If necessary, I
shall employ force.’
And she laughingly made a movement to lift the old man
in her arms.
‘Your chamber still stands ready in our house,’ she went
on. ‘If you only knew how pretty the garden is now! The
azaleas are doing very well there. The walks are sanded
with river sand; there are tiny violet shells. You shall eat my
strawberries. I water them myself. And no more ‘madame,’
no more ‘Monsieur Jean,’ we are living under a Republic,
everybody says thou, don’t they, Marius? The programme is
changed. If you only knew, father, I have had a sorrow, there

2436 Les Miserables