Chapter 98 Four dolls play

The row of open shops, we remember, stretched from the chapel to the door of Thenardier's inn.Since rich people will soon pass through that area to attend midnight mass, candles have been lit in those shops, and funnel-shaped paper covers are placed on the outside of the candles. Drinking in the first shop, he said that the candlelight was quite "charming", and at the same time, there was not a single star in the sky. The last stall, just facing Thenardier's door, was a toy shop, filled with glittering gold and silver jewellery, glass vessels, and tin toys.The merchant was at the head of the first row, displaying in front of a large white handkerchief a large doll, about two feet high, in a pink crepe gown, with gold tassels around its head, real hair, and enamel eyes.This treasure was displayed there all day, and no passer-by under the age of ten would love it, but there was no mother in Montfermeil who had so much money, or had the habit of squandering it, that she would buy it. Give it to the child.Éponine and Azma gazed there for several hours, while Cosette, indeed, only dared to glance once or twice furtively.

When Cosette went out with the bucket, in spite of her melancholy and despondency, she could not help raising her eyes to that extraordinary doll, to that "mother," as she called it.The poor boy stood there dumbfounded.She hadn't come close to see the doll yet.The whole store was like a palace to her, and the doll was not a doll, but an illusion.The poor little girl has been deeply immersed in that miserable, cruel and poor life. What she sees now, in her fantasy, naturally appear together as joy, glory, glory, and happiness.Cosette appraised with her innocent and sad wisdom the abyss that stood between her and the doll.She told herself that only a queen, or at least a princess, could get such a "thing."She looked carefully at the beautiful pink gown and smooth hair, and she thought to herself: "This doll, how happy she must be!" Her eyes could not leave the colorful shop.She became more and more dazzled.She thought she saw heaven.Behind the big doll, there were many little dolls, and she thought they must be fairies and fairies.The businessman walking up and down at the bottom of that stall seemed to her a bit like the Eternal Father.

In that admiration she forgot everything, even what she was told to do.Suddenly, Madame Thenardier's harsh voice brought her back to reality: "Why, you idiot, you haven't left yet! Wait! Wait until I come to settle accounts with you! I want to ask, what is she doing there! Little monster, go!" Madame Thenardier glanced into the street, and saw Cosette in a dream. Cosette hurriedly carried the bucket, let go and slipped away.