Les Misérables, page 115
CHAPTER IV--THE REMARKS OF THE PRINCIPAL TENANT
Jean Valjean was prudent enough never to go out by day. Every evening,at twilight, he walked for an hour or two, sometimes alone, often withCosette, seeking the most deserted side alleys of the boulevard, andentering churches at nightfall. He liked to go to Saint-Médard, which isthe nearest church. When he did not take Cosette with him, she remainedwith the old woman; but the child's delight was to go out with the goodman. She preferred an hour with him to all her rapturous _tête-à-têtes_with Catherine. He held her hand as they walked, and said sweet thingsto her.
It turned out that Cosette was a very gay little person.
The old woman attended to the housekeeping and cooking and went tomarket.
They lived soberly, always having a little fire, but like people invery moderate circumstances. Jean Valjean had made no alterations inthe furniture as it was the first day; he had merely had the glass doorleading to Cosette's dressing-room replaced by a solid door.
He still wore his yellow coat, his black breeches, and his old hat.In the street, he was taken for a poor man. It sometimes happened thatkind-hearted women turned back to bestow a sou on him. Jean Valjeanaccepted the sou with a deep bow. It also happened occasionally that heencountered some poor wretch asking alms; then he looked behind himto make sure that no one was observing him, stealthily approached theunfortunate man, put a piece of money into his hand, often a silvercoin, and walked rapidly away. This had its disadvantages. He began tobe known in the neighborhood under the name of _the beggar who givesalms_.
The old _principal lodger_, a cross-looking creature, who wasthoroughly permeated, so far as her neighbors were concerned, with theinquisitiveness peculiar to envious persons, scrutinized Jean Valjeana great deal, without his suspecting the fact. She was a little deaf,which rendered her talkative. There remained to her from her past, twoteeth,--one above, the other below,--which she was continually knockingagainst each other. She had questioned Cosette, who had not been ableto tell her anything, since she knew nothing herself except that she hadcome from Montfermeil. One morning, this spy saw Jean Valjean, withan air which struck the old gossip as peculiar, entering one of theuninhabited compartments of the hovel. She followed him with the stepof an old cat, and was able to observe him without being seen, through acrack in the door, which was directly opposite him. Jean Valjean had hisback turned towards this door, by way of greater security, no doubt. Theold woman saw him fumble in his pocket and draw thence a case, scissors,and thread; then he began to rip the lining of one of the skirts of hiscoat, and from the opening he took a bit of yellowish paper, which heunfolded. The old woman recognized, with terror, the fact that it wasa bank-bill for a thousand francs. It was the second or third only thatshe had seen in the course of her existence. She fled in alarm.
A moment later, Jean Valjean accosted her, and asked her to go andget this thousand-franc bill changed for him, adding that it was hisquarterly income, which he had received the day before. "Where?" thoughtthe old woman. "He did not go out until six o'clock in the evening, andthe government bank certainly is not open at that hour." The oldwoman went to get the bill changed, and mentioned her surmises. Thatthousand-franc note, commented on and multiplied, produced a vastamount of terrified discussion among the gossips of the Rue des VignesSaint-Marcel.
A few days later, it chanced that Jean Valjean was sawing some wood, inhis shirt-sleeves, in the corridor. The old woman was in the chamber,putting things in order. She was alone. Cosette was occupied in admiringthe wood as it was sawed. The old woman caught sight of the coat hangingon a nail, and examined it. The lining had been sewed up again. The goodwoman felt of it carefully, and thought she observed in the skirts andrevers thicknesses of paper. More thousand-franc bank-bills, no doubt!
She also noticed that there were all sorts of things in the pockets.Not only the needles, thread, and scissors which she had seen, but a bigpocket-book, a very large knife, and--a suspicious circumstance--severalwigs of various colors. Each pocket of this coat had the air of being ina manner provided against unexpected accidents.
Thus the inhabitants of the house reached the last days of winter.
