الفصل الفصل 351 · THE INSEPARABLE

What had become of Jean Valjean?

Immediately after having laughed, at Cosette’s graceful command, when

no one was paying any heed to him, Jean Valjean had risen and had

gained the antechamber unperceived. This was the very room which, eight

months before, he had entered black with mud, with blood and powder,

bringing back the grandson to the grandfather. The old wainscoting was

garlanded with foliage and flowers; the musicians were seated on the

sofa on which they had laid Marius down. Basque, in a black coat,

knee-breeches, white stockings and white gloves, was arranging roses

round all of the dishes that were to be served. Jean Valjean pointed to

his arm in its sling, charged Basque to explain his absence, and went

away.

The long windows of the dining-room opened on the street. Jean Valjean

stood for several minutes, erect and motionless in the darkness,

beneath those radiant windows. He listened. The confused sounds of the

banquet reached his ear. He heard the loud, commanding tones of the

grandfather, the violins, the clatter of the plates, the bursts of

laughter, and through all that merry uproar, he distinguished Cosette’s

sweet and joyous voice.

He quitted the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, and returned to the Rue de

l’Homme Armé.

In order to return thither, he took the Rue Saint-Louis, the Rue

Culture-Sainte-Catherine, and the Blancs-Manteaux; it was a little

longer, but it was the road through which, for the last three months,

he had become accustomed to pass every day on his way from the Rue de

l’Homme Armé to the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, in order to avoid the

obstructions and the mud in the Rue Vieille-du-Temple.

This road, through which Cosette had passed, excluded for him all

possibility of any other itinerary.

Jean Valjean entered his lodgings. He lighted his candle and mounted

the stairs. The apartment was empty. Even Toussaint was no longer

there. Jean Valjean’s step made more noise than usual in the chambers.

All the cupboards stood open. He penetrated to Cosette’s bedroom. There

were no sheets on the bed. The pillow, covered with ticking, and

without a case or lace, was laid on the blankets folded up on the foot

of the mattress, whose covering was visible, and on which no one was

ever to sleep again. All the little feminine objects which Cosette was

attached to had been carried away; nothing remained except the heavy

furniture and the four walls. Toussaint’s bed was despoiled in like

manner. One bed only was made up, and seemed to be waiting some one,

and this was Jean Valjean’s bed.

Jean Valjean looked at the walls, closed some of the cupboard doors,

and went and came from one room to another.

Then he sought his own chamber once more, and set his candle on a

table.

He had disengaged his arm from the sling, and he used his right hand as

though it did not hurt him.

He approached his bed, and his eyes rested, was it by chance? was it

intentionally? on the _inseparable_ of which Cosette had been jealous,

on the little portmanteau which never left him. On his arrival in the

Rue de l’Homme Armé, on the 4th of June, he had deposited it on a round

table near the head of his bed. He went to this table with a sort of

vivacity, took a key from his pocket, and opened the valise.

From it he slowly drew forth the garments in which, ten years before,

Cosette had quitted Montfermeil; first the little gown, then the black

fichu, then the stout, coarse child’s shoes which Cosette might almost

have worn still, so tiny were her feet, then the fustian bodice, which

was very thick, then the knitted petticoat, next the apron with

pockets, then the woollen stockings. These stockings, which still

preserved the graceful form of a tiny leg, were no longer than Jean

Valjean’s hand. All this was black of hue. It was he who had brought

those garments to Montfermeil for her. As he removed them from the

valise, he laid them on the bed. He fell to thinking. He called up

memories. It was in winter, in a very cold month of December, she was

shivering, half-naked, in rags, her poor little feet were all red in

their wooden shoes. He, Jean Valjean, had made her abandon those rags

to clothe herself in these mourning habiliments. The mother must have

felt pleased in her grave, to see her daughter wearing mourning for

her, and, above all, to see that she was properly clothed, and that she

was warm. He thought of that forest of Montfermeil; they had traversed

it together, Cosette and he; he thought of what the weather had been,

of the leafless trees, of the wood destitute of birds, of the sunless

sky; it mattered not, it was charming. He arranged the tiny garments on

the bed, the fichu next to the petticoat, the stockings beside the

shoes, and he looked at them, one after the other. She was no taller

than that, she had her big doll in her arms, she had put her louis d’or

in the pocket of that apron, she had laughed, they walked hand in hand,

she had no one in the world but him.

Then his venerable, white head fell forward on the bed, that stoical

old heart broke, his face was engulfed, so to speak, in Cosette’s

garments, and if any one had passed up the stairs at that moment, he

would have heard frightful sobs.