Page 1526 - les-miserables

is well, it is good, I have paid, I have earned it, all this is to
take flight, all this will vanish, and I shall lose Cosette, and
I shall lose my life, my joy, my soul, because it has pleased a
great booby to come and lounge at the Luxembourg.’
Then his eyes were filled with a sad and extraordinary
gleam.
It was no longer a man gazing at a man; it was no lon-
ger an enemy surveying an enemy. It was a dog scanning
a thief.
The reader knows the rest. Marius pursued his senseless
course. One day he followed Cosette to the Rue de l’Ouest.
Another day he spoke to the porter. The porter, on his side,
spoke, and said to Jean Valjean: ‘Monsieur, who is that curi-
ous young man who is asking for you?’ On the morrow Jean
Valjean bestowed on Marius that glance which Marius at
last perceived. A week later, Jean Valjean had taken his de-
parture. He swore to himself that he would never again set
foot either in the Luxembourg or in the Rue de l’Ouest. He
returned to the Rue Plumet.
Cosette did not complain, she said nothing, she asked
no questions, she did not seek to learn his reasons; she
had already reached the point where she was afraid of be-
ing divined, and of betraying herself. Jean Valjean had no
experience of these miseries, the only miseries which are
charming and the only ones with which he was not ac-
quainted; the consequence was that he did not understand
the grave significance of Cosette’s silence.
He merely noticed that she had grown sad, and he grew
gloomy. On his side and on hers, inexperience had joined

1526 Les Miserables