Page 713 - les-miserables

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 eve-
ning, 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 un-
der 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. Co-
sette 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 be-
fore, 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,

713