Les Misérables, page 154
CHAPTER IX--CLOISTERED
Cosette continued to hold her tongue in the convent.
It was quite natural that Cosette should think herself Jean Valjean'sdaughter. Moreover, as she knew nothing, she could say nothing, andthen, she would not have said anything in any case. As we have justobserved, nothing trains children to silence like unhappiness. Cosettehad suffered so much, that she feared everything, even to speak or tobreathe. A single word had so often brought down an avalanche upon her.She had hardly begun to regain her confidence since she had been withJean Valjean. She speedily became accustomed to the convent. Only sheregretted Catherine, but she dared not say so. Once, however, she didsay to Jean Valjean: "Father, if I had known, I would have brought heraway with me."
Cosette had been obliged, on becoming a scholar in the convent, to donthe garb of the pupils of the house. Jean Valjean succeeded in gettingthem to restore to him the garments which she laid aside. This was thesame mourning suit which he had made her put on when she had quittedthe Thénardiers' inn. It was not very threadbare even now. Jean Valjeanlocked up these garments, plus the stockings and the shoes, with aquantity of camphor and all the aromatics in which convents abound, in alittle valise which he found means of procuring. He set this valise ona chair near his bed, and he always carried the key about his person."Father," Cosette asked him one day, "what is there in that box whichsmells so good?"
Father Fauchelevent received other recompense for his good action, inaddition to the glory which we just mentioned, and of which he knewnothing; in the first place it made him happy; next, he had much lesswork, since it was shared. Lastly, as he was very fond of snuff, hefound the presence of M. Madeleine an advantage, in that he used threetimes as much as he had done previously, and that in an infinitely moreluxurious manner, seeing that M. Madeleine paid for it.
The nuns did not adopt the name of Ultime; they called Jean Valjean _theother Fauvent_.
If these holy women had possessed anything of Javert's glance, theywould eventually have noticed that when there was any errand to bedone outside in the behalf of the garden, it was always the elderFauchelevent, the old, the infirm, the lame man, who went, and never theother; but whether it is that eyes constantly fixed on God know not howto spy, or whether they were, by preference, occupied in keeping watchon each other, they paid no heed to this.
Moreover, it was well for Jean Valjean that he kept close and did notstir out. Javert watched the quarter for more than a month.
This convent was for Jean Valjean like an island surrounded by gulfs.Henceforth, those four walls constituted his world. He saw enough of thesky there to enable him to preserve his serenity, and Cosette enough toremain happy.
A very sweet life began for him.
He inhabited the old hut at the end of the garden, in company withFauchelevent. This hovel, built of old rubbish, which was still inexistence in 1845, was composed, as the reader already knows, of threechambers, all of which were utterly bare and had nothing beyond thewalls. The principal one had been given up, by force, for Jean Valjeanhad opposed it in vain, to M. Madeleine, by Father Fauchelevent. Thewalls of this chamber had for ornament, in addition to the two nailswhereon to hang the knee-cap and the basket, a Royalist bank-noteof '93, applied to the wall over the chimney-piece, and of which thefollowing is an exact facsimile:--
