Chapter 349 Six or two old people, each doing his best to create all the conditions for Cosette's happiness

Everything is being prepared at home for the wedding.A doctor's opinion was sought and it was decided that a wedding could be held in February.It's still December.A few weeks of happy, happy days passed. Grandfather also felt joy.Often he gazed at Cosette for a long time. "Wonderful beauty!" he exclaimed. "Her look is so gentle and kind! There is nothing to say, my love, that is the prettiest girl I have ever seen. Her virtues will be as fragrant as violets." What a fairy! She should be lived in noble surroundings. Marius, my child, you are a baron, you are rich, and I beg you not to be a lawyer again."

Cosette and Marius suddenly rise from the grave to heaven.The transition was so sudden that both of them would have been dumbfounded, if not dazzled. "Do you understand what is going on here?" Marius asked Cosette. "No," replied Cosette, "but I feel that God is watching us." Jean Valjean took care of everything, paved the way, mediated everything, and made things go smoothly.On the surface, he seems to be as happy as Cosette, and he earnestly looks forward to her happiness coming soon. Because he had been mayor, he solved a difficult problem, the mystery of which was known only to one person, and that was the problem of Cosette's identity.Tell her parentage straight out, who knows!There is a possibility of ruining the marriage.He ruled out all difficulties for Cosette.He arranged for her to be a child whose parents died, so that he could not take risks.Cosette was an orphan; Cosette was not his daughter, but the daughter of another Fauchelevent.The two Fauchelevent brothers worked as gardeners at Petit Picbus.I have sent people to the monastery, and after the investigation, I got many of the best situations and the most respectable testimonies; the good nuns don't understand and don't like to pursue other people's patrilineal issues, they don't see any tricks in it, Therefore, it was never clear which Fauchelevent's daughter little Cosette was.They said what others needed them to say, and they spoke with sincerity.A certificate of identity is already in place.By law Cosette was Mademoiselle Euphraghi Fauchelevent.She is claimed to have died of both parents.Jean Valjean was appointed guardian of Cosette by the name of Fauchelevent, and M. Gillenormand was added as the guardian of the guardian.

As for the five hundred and eighty-four thousand francs, it was an inheritance left to Cosette by a person who did not want to be named.The original figure was 594,000 francs. Cosette's education cost 10,000 francs, of which 5,000 francs were paid to the convent.This inheritance is placed in the custody of a third party and should be returned to Cosette when she becomes an adult or when she gets married.It seems that all of this is reasonable, especially with the inheritance of more than 500,000 yuan.But there are also some loopholes in it, but others are not aware of it.One person who had an interest in it was blinded by love, and the others were blinded by six hundred thousand francs.

Cosette knew that the old man she had called "Father" for a long time was not her real father, but only a relative; the other Fauchelevent was her father.If it wasn't for this moment, she would feel sad.But at present she was but a shade, a little melancholy, in the indescribable beauty of the day, but her spirits were so cheerful that the cloud soon lifted.She has Marius.When the young man arrived, the old man disappeared.That's the way life is. Also, Cosette had been accustomed for years to see certain incomprehensible mysteries around her; those who have experienced this mysterious childhood often do not look into certain things.

She still called Jean Valjean "Father". Cosette was happy, she adored Grandpa Gillenormand.He did say many words of praise to her, and gave her numerous presents.While Jean Valjean was creating for Cosette a socially normal position and a blameless fortune, M. Gillenormand was preparing her wedding gift basket.Nothing excites him more than the pursuit of luxury.He gave Cosette a lace dress from Banshee, which had been handed down to him by his own grandmother. "It's the fashion again," he said, "the antiques are in again, and the young women of my old age dress like the grandmothers of my boyhood."

He turned through the expensive Coromandel lacquered chest of drawers that had not been opened for many years. "Let these antiques confess," he said, "and see what's in them." He rummaged through the bellied drawers filled with the clothes of his wife and all his mistresses and elders.Chinese damasks, Damascus brocades, Chinese silks, crepes painted with flowers.Fire-baked tulle clothes, handkerchiefs embroidered with gold thread that can be washed, pieces of princess silk without front and back, cross-stitching of Genoa and Alençon, old-fashioned gold and silver jewelry, delicate Ivory candy boxes adorned with war paintings, ornaments, ribbons, everything he gave to Cosette.Cosette was full of surprises, her love for Marius was as deep as the sea, her gratitude to M. Gillenormand was endless, and she dreamed of an incomparable happiness intertwined with satin and velvet.She felt as if her wedding gift basket was being carried by an angel, and her heart seemed to soar in the blue sky with Marlin lace wings.

This was an ecstasy for the lovers which, we have already mentioned, was comparable only to the ecstasy of the grandfather.In Rue de la Passione it seemed that someone was playing celebratory brass music. Every morning my grandfather brought some antiques to Cosette.She was surrounded by all petticoat lace, like flowers in full bloom. One day, out of nowhere, Marius, who liked to talk about serious issues in happiness, said: "Those revolutionary figures are so great that they seem to have had prestige for centuries, like Cato and Fusion, both of whom have been revered since ancient times."

"Courtesy!" exclaimed Gillenormand, "thank you, Marius, this is exactly what I was looking for." The next day, a beautiful tawny antique brocade dress was added to Cosette's wedding gift basket. Grandfather draws his wise conclusion on this pile of clothes: "Love, that's all well and good, but it must be accompanied by these things. Happiness needs some useless things. Happiness, this is only a necessity. It needs to be seasoned with many luxuries. It needs a palace to welcome love, and love cannot do without the Louvre .With her love, need the fountains of Versailles.Give me the shepherdess, I will try to make her a duchess.Bring Feli with the cornflower crown, and give her an annuity of one hundred thousand livres. .Under the marble colonnade stretched out to me the pastoral landscape. I applaud the shepherd's cottage, and at the same time admire the marble and golden fairy world. Dry happiness is like eating dry bread, which is eaten, but not a feast. I I want the superfluous and the unnecessary, I want the absurd, the extravagant, the useless. I remember seeing a four-story-high clock in a church in Strasbourg that deigned to tell the time, But it doesn't seem like it was made for that, and it shows you the moon and The stars, the earth and the sea, the birds and the fish, Phoebus and Phoebe, out of one nest sprang countless things: the Twelve Apostles, and the Emperor Charles V, and Ebony and Sabinius , besides many little gilded figures blowing trumpets. Not to mention the beautiful chimes that are broadcast at any time and that resound for no reason. An ordinary bare clock that can only tell the time can compete with On par? I admire the big clocks of Strasbourg far more than the small clocks that imitate the cuckoo in the Black Forest."

M. Gillenormand makes a particularly absurd paradox about weddings, so that the prostitutes of the eighteenth century appear haphazardly in his odes. "You don't know the way of feasting. You don't have a good day in this age," he cried. "Your nineteenth century is languishing. It's abstemious, it doesn't know opulence, it doesn't know nobility. It is shaved bald in every way. Your third estate is pointless, bland, tasteless, monstrous. The dream of your married bourgeois women is, as they say, to furnish a beautiful house with the latest Decorated dame's little drawing room, purple wood and floral cotton. Out of the way! Out of the way! The miser marries a miser. A scene of richness and grandeur! A louis d'or on a candle. Such is the age. I hate Cannot escape farther than the country of the Chamatites. Ah! From 1787, I foretell the end of everything, when I saw the Duke of Roanne, who was also Prince of Leon, the Duke of Chabot, the The Duke of Bassoon, the Marquis of Soubis, the Viscount d'Or, and the French ministers in a chariot to Longcens! All this has had consequences. In this century, everyone trades, speculates on the stock exchange, and makes a fortune. Became misers. They groomed themselves, but only in appearance; well dressed, well washed, soaped, shaved, shaved, combed, waxed, smoothed, rubbed, brushed, Neat, impeccable, stone-smooth on the outside, deliberate and stately in manner, while, I swear by the chastity of my mistresses, their hearts are dunghills and cesspools so dirty as to frighten a cattleman who blows his nose with his hands To this age, I dedicate this inscription: Dirty cleanliness. Don't be offended, Marius, and allow me to speak. You know that I have never spoken ill of your people, and I have often The common people talk about it, but please let me be a little bit rude to the bourgeoisie. I am also one of them. Hitting is kissing, scolding is love. I will simply clarify this point. People hold weddings today without knowing it. How should it be done. Ah! I tell you the truth, I am sorry for the loss of the elegant customs of the past, I am sorry for everything that has been lost. That gentle manners that everyone has, chivalrous chivalry, courteous and genial manners, make The luxury of people's joy, music is a content of the wedding, the orchestra is upstairs, the gongs and drums are downstairs, the dance, the happy face at the banquet, the overly thoughtful compliments to women, singing, fireworks, laughter, all kinds of things, everything that one expects to find. , many large ribbon knots. I still think of the bridal garter a lot. The bridal garter and the sash of Venus are cousins. What was the Trojan war for? Helen's garter, of course! Why was there a war? Why did the holy Diomedes poke ten holes in the great bronze helmet of Meiliona? Why did Achilles and Hector kill each other with spears? Because Helen let Paris take her Garters. Homer would have written for Cosette's garters. He would have put into his poems a long-winded old man like me, and could have named him Nestor. Friends, in the past, in In the lovely old days, people were very particular about weddings; first a marriage letter was written, and then a good feast was given. As soon as Guyas went out, Gamache came in, butYes, of course!Because the stomach is an interesting beast, it wants its share, and happy events have its share.The banquet was very rich. At the banquet, there was a beautiful woman who didn't wear a nun's turban beside her, and she only slightly covered her breasts!Oh!Everyone opened their mouths to laugh, people were so happy in that era!At that time, youth was a bouquet of flowers, and every young man held a lilac or a bouquet of roses in his hand, even a soldier would become a shepherd!If you happen to be a captain of dragoons, you also try to be named Florian.Everyone is making themselves beautiful, everyone is grooming themselves, they are all purple.A bourgeois man is like a flower, a marquis like a jewel.No one wears buckle shoes, no one wears boots, everyone is beautiful, oiled and shiny, in golden brown, dancing, graceful and pretentious, but still might as well have a sword around your waist, hummingbird Beak and claw, that was the era of "Refined India".It was a century of refinement and luxury.I swear to God!Everyone had a great time at that time.Everyone is so serious today.The rich are mean, the women are prudish; your century is unfortunate.You can expel beauty gods because they are too bare-chested.well!You cover up your beauty like you're ugly.Since the Revolution, everyone wears long trousers, even the dancers; a burlesque actress is serious; and your light dance in pairs is serious.It is very dignified, and everyone will feel sorry if the attitude is not solemn.The ideal of a twenty-year-old married man is to be like Mr. Royer-Coral.Do you know what the result of this majesty is?It makes people small.You see this: joy is not mere pleasure, it is great.So be merry in love, hell!When you marry, let it be hot, dizzy, tumultuous, happy buzzing!There should be solemnity in church, I agree, but once the mass is over, who cares!We are about to dance like a dream in a whirl around the bride.A wedding should be grand and full of fantasy!The procession should continue from Reims Church to the Chandelier Pagoda.I hate bad weddings.hell!At least one day in heaven.Be a god!what!You can become earth immortals, gods of entertainment, gods of laughter, gods of wealth; you are all goblins!My friends, the bridegroom must be Prince Atobrandini.Come and enjoy the only golden moment in your life, go to swim with swans and eagles for nine days, even if you fall back into the frog-style bourgeois life the next day.Don't economize on your wedding, don't detract from its splendor; don't begrudge your money in your radiance.Marriage is not an ordinary life.what!It would be wonderful if it were done according to my whim.We can hear the violin playing in the forest.My show should be sky blue and silvery.On this festival I will invite all the gods of the fields; I will invite the nymphs and nymphs of the sea.The wedding was to be like Amphitrite, a pink cloud with beautifully combed naked nymphs, an academician reciting quatrains to the goddess, sea beasts pulling a double The cart moves forward.

trot ahead, he uses the conch This is the wedding program, otherwise, I'm a layman, go to hell! " When the grandfather talked and listened to himself vigorously, Cosette and Marius gazed at each other affectionately and casually. Aunt Gillenormand watched all this calmly and composedly.For five or six months she had undergone many stimuli: Marius returned, Marius was brought back bleeding, Marius was brought back from the barricades, Marius died and then lived again Come, Marius is reconciled, Marius is engaged, Marius is to marry a poor girl, Marius is to marry a very rich girl.The six hundred thousand francs was the last thing that surprised her.Then she resumed that naivete's indifference to the world.She went to church on time, struck her rosary, read her prayer book, whispered the Ave Maria in one corner of the room while someone whispered "I love you" in another corner.She vaguely saw Marius and Cosette as two shadows.In fact, the shadow is her own.

There is a state of ascetic stupor, in which the mind is neutralized by paralysis, so that it knows nothing of what we call life, except earthquakes and disasters, without any common sense, neither joy nor pain. "This devotion," Father Gillenormand said to his daughter, "is like a head cold. You have no sense of life. You don't smell the stink, but you don't smell the fragrance either." Besides, the six hundred thousand francs had wiped out the spinster's hesitation.Her father had always paid little attention to her, so he did not seek her advice on Marius' marriage.He acted according to his own ideas and passions alone, and the tyrant has become a slave whose only desire is to satisfy Marius.As for the aunt, what opinion might she have on her existence, he didn't even think about it, no matter how docile she was, this matter did offend her.Although she was slightly disgusted deep in her heart, she was calm on the surface.She thought to herself: "My father decided not to discuss the marriage with me, so I didn't ask him when I settled my property inheritance." She was indeed rich, but her father was not.She thus reserved her own discretion on the matter.If the marriage had been a poor union, she might have let them live in poverty.Mr. nephew married a woman, so he should also be a woman.But the fact that Cosette had six hundred thousand francs pleased her aunt, and her opinion of the lovers changed.Six hundred thousand francs should be valued. Obviously, she can only leave her property to these two young people, because they are not short of it. The newlyweds had arranged to live in their grandfather's house.M. Gillenormand must give up his bedroom, the most beautiful in the house. "This makes me young," he said, "and it was a plan. For I have always had the idea of ​​having a wedding in my room." It is a particularly precious material from Utrecht to decorate the walls and ceiling, with golden ranunculus and velvet lotus on a satin base."This is the stuff the Duchess of Anville makes her bed-cover at Lochgeron," he said. He placed a Saxon polychrome figure on the mantelpiece, with her belly bare, holding a muff. M. Gillenormand's library became the lawyer's office Marius needed.Offices, we recall, are mandatory by the peace council.