Chapter 39 Volume 4 Sustainment is sometimes a sacrifice

During the first twenty-five years of this century, at Montfermeil, near Paris, there was an inn, more or less a restaurant, which no longer exists.The inn was owned by a couple named Thenardier.On Bakers Lane.Over the head of the store was a plank nailed flat to the wall.Something was drawn on the board, as if it were a man, and that man carried on his back another man with a large gold epaulet of the rank of general, and several large silver stars on it; ; the rest is all smoke and dust, roughly to describe the scene on the battlefield.On the lower end of the board are the words: Sergeant's Residence, Waterloo.

It is the most common thing to park a couch or a small car in front of an inn.But one evening in the spring of 1818, the wagon (or rather a wreck of a car) blocking the street in front of the Sergeant's Residence at Waterloo was enough to attract the attention of passing painters. It was the front half of a heavy goods vehicle used to load planks and tree stumps in forested areas.Its components are a heavy iron shaft mounted on two huge wheels and a heavy shaft embedded in the shaft.The whole is huge, bulky, and grotesque, like the seat of a cannon.The wheels, rims, hubs, axles, and shafts had all been coated with a yellowish mud puddle from the road along the road, not unlike the kind of mortar people like to decorate cathedrals with.The wood was hidden in the mud, the iron in the rust, and under the axle hung a thick chain fit for a convict Goliath.That chain reminds one not of the giants it holds, but of mastodons and mammoths it handles; it looks like it came out of a prison (the prison of trolls and supermen), It also seems to be untied from a monster.Homer would have used it to bind Polyphemus, and Shakespeare to bind Caliban.

Why is the front of that heavy goods vehicle parked in the middle of the street?First, to block the road; second, to let it rust away.In the old social organization, there are many such institutions, which are also blatantly blocked in the road, and have no other reason for existence. The middle part of the chain at the bottom is quite close to the ground. At dusk, two little girls, one about two and a half years old and one eighteen months old, sat side by side at the bend of the chain, as if sitting on a swing rope. That one was lying in Da's arms, hugging each other affectionately.A handkerchief tied them neatly to keep them from falling.When a mother first saw that ugly chain, she said, "Hey! This thing could be my kids' thing."

Those two happy children were indeed well-dressed and cared for carefully, just like two roses among scrap iron; their eyes were full of air, and their fresh faces were smiling.One has chestnut hair, the other brown.Their innocent faces were filled with surprise and delight.There is a bush of wild flowers nearby that frequently sends fragrance to passers-by, and people always think that the fragrance comes from them.The eighteen-month-old, innocently, showing her naked, cute little belly.On the top of these two blissful, charming and eye-catching babies, stands the tall and wide frame, covered in black rust, ugly in appearance, full of criss-crossing curves and corners, like the arch of a cave at the entrance of a savage .A few steps away, there is an aunt who is not cute but very touching at the moment, that is their mother; she is squatting at the door of the inn, swinging the two children with a long rope, her eyes are tightly closed. Keep an eye on them for fear of accidents.She had the air of a beast and a god like no other but her mother.Every time the ugly chain links were swung, they made a sharp cry as if they were losing their temper.The two little girls were ecstatically happy, and Xie Yang was also adding to the fun.There is nothing more interesting in the world than a trick of providence that turns a troll's iron chain into a swing for cherubs.

The mother, swinging her two children, hummed a popular love song in an inaccurate tune: Her singing and her attention to the two daughters blinded her from hearing and seeing what was happening in the street. Just as she was beginning to sing the first stanza of the love song, someone approached her, and she suddenly heard someone say in her ear: "Sister-in-law, your two little babies are so cute." The mother sang a love song in reply, then turned her head away. It turned out that a woman was standing in front of her, only a few steps away from her.The woman also had a child in her arms.

In addition, she was holding a carry-on coat bag that seemed heavy. The woman's child was a fairy-like child.It is a girl of two or three years old.The gorgeous decoration of her clothes can compete with those two children.She wore a little silk hat with Valence lace, and a cloak with streamers.Lifting up the skirt, one could see her snow-white, plump, firm thighs.She was ruddy and healthy, and indeed lovely.The cheeks are as bright as apples, making people want to bite them.Her eyes must have been very large, and must have had very fine lashes, but we can't say anything more, because she was asleep.

How sweetly she slept!Only at her young age could she fall asleep without worry.The arms of a loving mother are made of love, how can children not sleep in it sweet? As for the mother, she looked poor and melancholy. She was dressed like a working girl, but she showed some signs of wanting to be a peasant woman again. She was still young.Is she beautiful?Maybe, but she doesn't look beautiful because of that attire.A lock of blond locks was shown in her hair, showing the volume of her hair, but she had tied it tightly under her chin with an ugly narrow witch's kerchief, and covered it all up.A man can show beautiful teeth when he smiles, but she doesn't smile at all.Her eyes seemed fresh.Her face was pale, and she looked very tired and sick.She looked at her daughter sleeping in her arms with the way only a mother who breastfeeds herself can.A heavy blue handkerchief folded diagonally, the kind wounded soldiers use to blow their noses, covered her waist.Her hands are dry and black, covered with spots, the rough leather on the index finger is full of needle marks, a thick blue woolen cloak, cloth skirt, and big shoes are draped over her shoulders.She is Fantine.

She is Fantine.It's hard to recognize.But if you look closely, her beauty remains the same as before.A sad wrinkle ran across her right cheek, as if it was the beginning of a sneer.As for attire, her former lilac-studded, lilac-scented, frenzied frivolity, seemed to be an adornment of merriment, revelry, and music, long gone like the frost on a tree, shining in the sun and shining like diamonds. Disappeared, after the frost flowers melted, only the dark branches remained. It has been ten months since that "wonderful joke" was made. What happened during these ten months?That is to be expected.

After giving up, it is hard.Fantine completely lost sight of Beloved, Sephine, and Dahlia; what had been severed on the man's side was torn up on the woman's side; and they would have wondered if, after fifteen days, it had been said that they had been friends before, and were now gone. There is no reason to be friends anymore.Fantine was alone.The father of her child is gone, how miserable!This renunciation was irretrievable, she was alone, without relatives, her habits of labor were lessened, her tastes for entertainment increased, and since her relationship with Tholomyer she despised what she had learned before. Little craft, she neglected her own way out, and now there is no way out.There is no salvation.Fantine could read a little, but could not write, and when she was young she had been taught only to sign her own name.She had a gentleman with a writing-stand write a letter to Tholomyères, then a second, and then a third.Tholomyère did not reply.One day, Fantine heard some tongue-in-cheek women looking at her child and saying: "Who would recognize such a child? With such a child, everyone just shrugs their shoulders!" Then she thought that Tholomyer must have treated her child too. The child shrugged, and would not recognize this innocent little man. Thinking of that man, her heart was disheartened.But what to do?She no longer knew whom to turn to for advice.She made mistakes, but we remember that her nature was chaste and virtuous.She had a vague feeling that she would soon fall into misery and sink into an even worse situation.She had to have grit; she had grit, so she stood her ground.It occurred to her to go back to her native place, Montreuil-sur-Mer, where she might be known and offered a job.It was a good plan, but first she had to hide her mistake.So she faintly saw that she might face the pain of birth and separation again, and this time the pain of birth and separation would be worse than the last time.Her heart twisted, but she made up her mind.Fantine, as we shall know later, dared to face life boldly.

She had resolutely abandoned embellishment, dressed herself in common clothes, and used all her silks, scraps, ribbons, and laces for her daughter, who was her only vanity.She had sold everything for two hundred francs, and after paying off odd debts here and there she had only about eighty francs.At the age of twenty-two, on a sunny spring morning, she left Paris with her child on her back.If anyone saw their mother and daughter walking by, no one would feel sad.That woman has only this child in the world, and that child has only this woman in the world.Fantine had nursed her daughter, whose breasts were tired, and she coughed a little.

We shall have no further occasion to speak of M. Félix Daulommier.Suffice it to say that twenty years later, during the reign of Louis Philippe, he was a barbarian, wealthy and powerful public lawyer in the provinces, a well-behaved elector, a stern judge, a perpetually courteous An apprentice who hunts beauty. Fantine, at the cost of three or four sous a fare, took what was then called a Paris suburban limousine, and by day reached Montfermeil's Lane Bakers. As she passed the door of Thenardier's inn, she saw the two little girls playing strangely on the grotesque swing, and she couldn't help being elated, and she just looked at the happy scene. There is a charm that seduces people.Those two girls were such charms to the mother. She looked at them and was greatly moved.Seeing angels was like experiencing heaven, and she seemed to see the mysterious words "God is here" on the inn.Those two girls were obviously so happy!She looked at them, admired them, and was so moved that when the mother breathed between her lines, she could not help saying to her the line we have just read: "Sister-in-law, your two little babies are so cute." The most ferocious beast will be tamed when its young are stroked.The mother raised her head, thanked her, and invited the passing female guest to sit on the stool by the door, while she herself squatted on the threshold.The two women began to chat. "My name is Mamma Thenardier," said the mother of the two girls, "and we own the inn." Then, back to her love song, humming through clenched teeth: The Thenardier mother was a red-haired, fleshy, short-breathing woman, a typical tigress.And it's strange to say that she always seems to be full of thoughts, that's because she read more eclectic novels a few times.She was such a coy, androgynous creature, which old tattered novels often have on the imagination of an innkeeper's wife.She is still young, less than thirty years old.Had the squatting woman stood upright, her gigantic figure, like a bodhisattva in an amusement park, might have frightened the female guest at once, disturbed her confidence, and the events we are about to describe would not have happened. up.Sitting together by one person will involve the fate of many people. The female guest from afar began to talk about her life experience, but the talk was slightly different from the actual situation. She said she was a working girl, her husband was dead, there was a lack of work in Paris, she was going to look for work elsewhere, she was going back to her hometown.That morning, she left Paris on foot, because she was tired with the child, and happened to meet a car bound for Montpellier, and she took it; from Montpellier to Montfermeil, she walked came; the little one walked a little too, but not much, she was so young that she had to be held, and her darling fell asleep. Speaking of which, she kissed her daughter passionately, waking her up.The child opened her eyes, big blue eyes, like her mother's, and looked at, looking at what?To look at nothing, to look at everything, with the serious and sometimes serious air of children, a mysterious expression of their bright innocence in the face of our decaying morality.As if they thought they were angels and knew we were mortals.Then the child laughed. Although the mother hugged her, she slid to the ground with the unrestrained perseverance of a small life, and suddenly she saw the two children on the swing, and immediately stopped moving. Stick out your tongue, expressing envy. Mother Thenardier untied her two daughters, made them get off the swing, and said: "The three of you play together." At that age the game was soon familiar, and a minute later the two little Thenardiers, together with their new companion, were digging holes in the ground and having a great time. The new companion was lively and amusing, and the mother's good-nature showed itself in the doll's joy, as she took a small piece of wood for a shovel, and dug a hole big enough for a fly.It is interesting that the work of a gravedigger comes from the hands of a child. The two women continued their conversation. "What's your baby's name?" "Cosette." Cosette should be Euphrates.The boy's original name was O'Fraghi.But her mother changed Euphraghi into Cosette, which is a refined instinct common to mothers and commoners, for example, Josefa often became Bebida, and Françoise often became Sicily. Wright.This kind of borrowing of words cannot be explained by the knowledge of etymologists.We know someone's grandmother who actually turned Theodore into Genon. "How old is she?" "Almost three years old." "Just like my older kids." At that time, the three girls gathered together, looking extremely happy, but also very anxious, because at that time a big event happened: a fat earthworm just came out of the ground, and they were fascinated by it. Their beaming foreheads were next to each other, as if three heads were in a circle of light. "These children," exclaimed Mamma Thenardier, "have become acquainted at once! One must think that they are three sisters!" That sentence is roughly the spark that this mother was waiting for.She took Mama Thenardier's hand, and, looking at her, said to her: "Will you take care of my children for me?" Mother Thenardier was startled. It was a gesture of neither consent nor refusal. Cosette's mother went on to say: "Do you understand, I can't take my children home. The job doesn't allow that. There's no place to go with the children. They're so queer in there. Good God teach me to learn from you Walking in front of the inn, when I saw your children so beautiful, so clean, so happy, my heart was touched. I said: 'This is really a good mother.' Oh, they really know Three sisters. And, I'll be back soon. Will you take care of my children for me?" "I must think about it first," said Mamma Thenardier. "I can pay six francs a month." Speaking of this, a man's voice called out from the bottom of the inn: "It must be seven francs. And six months in advance." "Six seven forty-two," said Mamma Thenardier. "I'll pay for it," said the mother. "And an additional fifteen francs for all expenses when I first took over," said the man's voice again. "Fifty-seven francs," said Mamma Thenardier. At the mention of these numbers, she hummed casually again: "I'll pay what I want," said the mother. "I have eighty francs. The rest is enough for me to spend, if I go away. I'll make money when I get there, and when I have some money, I'll pay for it." Come back and find my heart." The man's voice said again: "Does that child have any baggage?" "That's my husband," said Mamma Thenardier. "Of course she's got a bag, the poor darling. I knew he was your husband. And a full bag, too! But it's a little unnaturally full. It's got dozens of things in it, and Some satin dress of the same material as a lady's dress. It's in my bag." "You have to hand it over," said the man's voice again. "Of course I'll hand it over!" said the mother. "I let my daughter be naked, that's a joke!" Thenardier presented the face of his master. "Very good," he said. The deal is done.The mother stayed one night in the inn, handed over her money, left her child, and reconnected her bag, which had been shrunk by taking out the child's clothes, and was ever light, and on the next morning Gone, intending to come back early.People always like to make wishful thinking about the separation and separation of flesh and blood, but it often comes to nothing. A neighbor of the Thenardiers, who met the departed mother, returned and said: "I just saw a woman crying in the street!" After Cosette's mother had gone, the man said to his wife: "So I can pay my bill of one hundred and ten francs due to-morrow. I'm still fifty francs short. Do you know? Here it is. This time, you rely on your two children to become a Goddess of Wealth." "I didn't think of it," said the woman.