Page 696 - les-miserables

does not speak for fear lest he should weep. He nodded to
Cosette, and placed the ‘lady’s’ hand in her tiny hand.
Cosette hastily withdrew her hand, as though that of the
‘lady’ scorched her, and began to stare at the floor. We are
forced to add that at that moment she stuck out her tongue
immoderately. All at once she wheeled round and seized the
doll in a transport.
‘I shall call her Catherine,’ she said.
It was an odd moment when Cosette’s rags met and
clasped the ribbons and fresh pink muslins of the doll.
‘Madame,’ she resumed, ‘may I put her on a chair?’
‘Yes, my child,’ replied the Thenardier.
It was now the turn of Eponine and Azelma to gaze at
Cosette with envy.
Cosette placed Catherine on a chair, then seated herself
on the floor in front of her, and remained motionless, with-
out uttering a word, in an attitude of contemplation.
‘Play, Cosette,’ said the stranger.
‘Oh! I am playing,’ returned the child.
This stranger, this unknown individual, who had the air
of a visit which Providence was making on Cosette, was the
person whom the Thenardier hated worse than any one in
the world at that moment. However, it was necessary to con-
trol herself. Habituated as she was to dissimulation through
endeavoring to copy her husband in all his actions, these
emotions were more than she could endure. She made haste
to send her daughters to bed, then she asked the man’s per-
mission to send Cosette off also; ‘for she has worked hard all
day,’ she added with a maternal air. Cosette went off to bed,

696 Les Miserables