Chapter 263 VI Marius actually told Cosette his address

Marius was at Cosette's side just as the bitch with a human face stood firm at the iron gate, and the six strongmen retreated before a girl. Never were the stars so bright, nor the trees tremble, nor the grass smell so sweet, nor the sweet song of a sleeping bird on its boughs.The sky is bright and quiet, and the scenery is pleasant. This could not be more harmonious with the music in their hearts at that time.Marius had never been so in love, so happy, so exuberant.But he found Cosette sullen.Cosette cried.Her eyes were still red. It was the first haze that appeared in this happy dream.

Marius' first words were: "what happened to you?" She replied: "not very." Then she sat down on the bench by the steps, and just as he came trembling to sit beside her, she went on: "My father told me to get ready this morning, saying he had something urgent to do and that we might have to go." Marius shivered from head to toe. At the end of life, death is called walking; at the beginning, walking is tantamount to death. For six weeks Marius had possessed Cosette bit by bit, step by step, slowly, day by day.It is completely conceptual possession, but it is a deep possession.As we have already said, in the early stages of love, man takes the soul far before the body; Liu Geng added: "Because the soul does not exist." But fortunately, such harsh words are only sacrilege.Thus Marius possessed Cosette as if possessed by the spirit, but he surrounded her with all his soul, and held her jealously with an unimaginable conviction.He possessed her smile, her breath, her fragrance, the clear radiance of her blue eyes, the softness of her skin (when he touched her hand), the charming mole on her neck , all her thoughts.They once agreed that they must dream of each other during sleep, and they meant what they said.Therefore he possesses every dream of Cosette.He often kept looking at the few short hairs in the nape of her neck, brushing them with his breath, and declared that there was not a single one of them that did not belong to him, Marius.He admired and adored her dress, her ribbon knots, her gloves, her lace cuffs, her ankle boots, as holy things of which he was master.He used to fantasize about himself being the sovereign owner of the delicate tortoiseshell comb in her hair, and he even mused to himself (an erotic whim): every thread in her gown, every thread in her stocking Every mesh, every wrinkle in her underwear, there wasn't a thing that didn't belong to him.He stayed by Cosette's side, and thought himself right by his property, by his possessions, by his tyrant and slave.They seem to have mixed their souls together, and if they want to take them back, they can no longer be separated. "This soul is mine." "No, it is mine." "I assure you, you are mistaken. It must be me." "You took it for you, but it was me." Marius was A part of Cosette, Cosette was already a part of Marius.Marius felt Cosette living in him.To have Cosette, to possess Cosette, was as inseparable to him as breathing.It was in this conviction, this obsession, this virginity and the unprecedented absolute possessiveness, this notion of sovereignty that haunted him that he suddenly heard the words "we're going" and the brutality of reality. The voice cried to him: "Cosette is not yours!"

Marius awoke with a start.We have already said that for six weeks Marius lived outside of life.Walk!The word pushed him hard into reality. He couldn't say a word.Cosette felt only that his hands were cold.Now it's her turn to say: "what happened to you?" He answered feebly, Cosette could hardly hear him, and said: "I don't understand what you said." She continued: "This morning my father asked me to pack up my groceries and get ready, saying he was going to give me his change of clothes to put in the trunk, he had to go on a trip and we'd be leaving soon , wanting me to prepare a big trunk and a small one for him, all within a week, and saying we might go to England."

"But this is dreadful!" exclaimed Marius. Doubtless it was in Marius' mind at this time that no abuse of power, no atrocity, no crime of the most absurd tyrant, no act of Busilis, Tiberius, or Henry VIII, could compare On the cruelty of the move: M. Fauchelevent was taking his daughter to England because he had business to attend to. He asked weakly: "When are you leaving?" "He didn't say when." "When will you come back?" "He didn't say when." Marius stood up and asked coldly: "Cosette, will you go?" Cosette turned her beautiful, terrified eyes to him, and replied incomprehensibly:

"where to?" "England, are you going?" "Why did you say 'you' to me?" "I ask you, are you going?" "What do you want me to do?" she said, twisting her hands. "So, are you going?" "Suppose my father is going?" "So, are you going?" Cosette seized Marius' hand, squeezed it, and made no answer. "Well," said Marius, "then I will go elsewhere." Cosette did not understand what he said, but felt the weight of it.Her face suddenly changed, and she looked pale in the darkness.She stammered:

"What do you mean by that?" Marius looked at her, then slowly raised his eyes to the sky, and replied: "there is nothing." When he lowered his eyelids, he saw Cosette smiling at him.A woman's smile to her lover has a kind of light that shines in the dark. "How foolish we are! Marius, I have an idea." "any solution?" "Let's go, you go too! I'll tell you where to go later! Find me where we are going!" Marius was now a fully conscious man.He came back to reality.He said aloud to Cosette: "Going with you! Are you crazy? You must have money, I have no money! To England? I still owe Courfeyrac, I don't know how much, at least ten louis. He is a friend of mine, you I don't know. I have an old hat worth three francs, I have a coat with a few buttons missing in the front, my shirt is torn, the sleeves are all torn, and my boots are soaked. Didn't think of it, didn't tell you about it. Cosette! I'm a poor boy. You only saw me at night, and gave me your love. If you saw me in the daytime, you'd give me a sou! Go to England! Hey hey! I can't even pay for a passport to go abroad!"

He rushed over to a tree standing next to him, stretched his arms above his head, and pressed his forehead against the tree. He neither felt the tree poking his flesh, nor felt the hot blood beating his temple frequently. He remained motionless, only To fall down, like a statue of despair. He stayed like this for a long time.Maybe never jump out of this abyss.Finally, he turned his head.He heard a soft, mournful sob coming from behind him. It was Cosette who was weeping. He walked towards her, knelt down in front of her, then slowly crouched down, grabbed her toes that were exposed at the edge of her dress, and kissed it.

She let him do it without saying a word.Women sometimes receive the worship of love like a goddess of mercy and submissiveness. "Stop crying," he said. She whispered: "I may be leaving this place, and you can't follow me!" He went on to say: "Do you love me?" While sobbing, she answered, and the words she answered, when she said them with tears, were particularly shocking: "I admire you!" He said in an indescribably gentle and euphemistic voice: "Don't cry. You said, would you like to stop crying for me?" "Do you love me, you?"

He squeezed her hand: "I never swore to anyone, Cosette, because I was afraid of swearing. I felt that my father was with me. But now I can make the most sacred vow to you: if you go, I will die." The tone in which he spoke these words had a solemn and calm melancholy which made Cosette shudder.She felt the chill of something dark and solid passing by.Out of fear, she stopped crying. "Now, listen to me," he said, "don't wait for me tomorrow." "why?" "Wait for me the day after tomorrow." "Oh! Why?" "You'll know."

"Not seeing you all day! That's impossible." "Let's sacrifice a whole day, maybe a lifetime." Marius said again in a low voice to himself: "This man never changes his habits. He never visits until dark." "Who do you mean?" asked Cosette. "Me? I didn't say anything." "Then what do you wish for?" "Let's talk about it the day after tomorrow." "You must do this?" "Yes, Cosette." She held his head in her two hands, stood on tiptoe to reach the height of his body, trying to guess his so-called hope from his eyes.

Marius continued: "I remember. You should know where I live. No one knows what might happen. I live at the house of my friend Courfeyrac, at 16 Rue de Glassworks." From his pocket he took a 2-fold knife, and with the point of the knife he carved "16 Glassworks Street, 16" on the plastered wall. Cosette now began to watch his eyes again. "Tell me what's on your mind. Marius, you're thinking of something. Tell me. Oh! Tell me, and I'll get a good night's sleep!" "My idea is this: God can't separate us. Wait for me the day after tomorrow." "The day after tomorrow, how can I wait until the day after tomorrow?" said Cosette. "You, you're out there, coming and going. How happy the men are! Me, I'm all alone at home. Oh! I don't worry about people! What are you going to do tomorrow night, you?" "There's something I'm going to try." "Then I'll pray to God that you succeed, and I'm thinking of you, waiting for you to come. I won't ask you any more, since you don't want me to ask. You are my master. I'll stay at home tomorrow night and sing "O Liante, that's what you love to hear, you heard it one night outside my shuttered window. But the day after tomorrow, come early. I'll be waiting for you at night, at nine o'clock, and tell you beforehand. My God How sad, how slow the days go! You understand, I'll be in the garden at nine o'clock." "me too." Unknowingly, they were driven by the same thought, drawn by the electric current that constantly crossed between the two lovers, intoxicated by the joy that coexisted in pain, and fell into each other at the same time. In the arms of the two, their lips also met inadvertently, their souls flew over, tears filled their eyes, and they looked up at the starry night sky together. There was no one in the street when Marius left the garden.Éponine was now crawling towards the road after the gang. While Marius was resting his head on the tree, an idea came to his mind, an idea, yes, but, unfortunately, it seemed to him also grotesque and impossible.He bit the bullet and decided to give it a try.