Chapter 358 a basement

The next day, at dusk, Jean Valjean knocked at the door of Gillenormand's house.He was greeted by Basque.Basque happened to be in the yard, as if he had received orders.Sometimes we tell our servants: "You stay here with so-and-so, and he's coming." Basque asked Jean Valjean before he came to him: "The Baron told me to ask, sir, whether to go upstairs or to stay downstairs?" "Downstairs," replied Jean Valjean. Basque was indeed very respectful. He opened the basement door and said, "I'll inform Madam." Jean Valjean went into a damp vaulted cellar, which is sometimes used as a wine cellar.Dim light came in from a red-paned window with iron bars opening to the street.

This was not a room where dust had quietly accumulated, as other rooms had been regularly cleaned with whisks, ceiling dusters, and brooms.An eradication plan for spiders has not been established.A large, delicate, black spider's web, studded with dead flies, hung pretentiously across one of the panes.The room was small and low, with a pile of empty wine bottles in the corner.The walls were painted a ochre-yellow, with flakes of lime peeling off.A fire was lit in a black-painted wooden fireplace with a narrow mantel, which evidently showed that they expected Jean Valjean's answer to be "down there."

Two armchairs were placed on either side of the fire, and between the armchairs, in place of the rug, a little bedside rug was spread, of which there was nothing but thick rope and almost no wool. The room was illuminated by the light from the fire and the evening sky from the windows. Jean Valjean was exhausted.For several days he neither ate nor slept, and he sank into an armchair. Basque came in, put a lighted candle on the mantelpiece, and went away.Jean Valjean, with his head bowed and his chin drooping on his breast, saw neither the Basque nor the candle. Suddenly he stood up excitedly, and Cosette was behind him.

He didn't see her come in, but he felt her come in. He turned around, he looked at her, she was admirably beautiful.But what he looked at with deep eyes was not the beautiful face, but the soul. "Ah, yes," exclaimed Cosette, "what a thought! Father, I know you have eccentricities, but I never thought of it again. Marius told me you wanted me to receive you here. " "Yes, it's me." "I've guessed your answer. Well, I warn you, I'm going to make a fuss with you. Start at the beginning, father, kiss me first." She brought her cheek closer.

Jean Valjean remained motionless. "You don't move, I see clearly, it's a sign of sin. Forget it, I forgive you. Jesus said, 'Turn the other cheek to him.' Here it is." She brought the other side of her face closer. Jean Valjean did not move at all, as if his feet had been nailed to the ground. "This is serious," said Cosette. "How have I offended you? I declare that I am turning against you, and you must make peace with me. Come and dine with us." "I have already eaten." "It's not the truth. I'll ask Gillenormand's grandfather to reprimand you. Grandfather can teach father. Come and go to the living room with me quickly, and go at once."

"no." At this point, Cosette felt a little overwhelmed, and she stopped ordering and turned to asking questions. "Why? You chose the most humble room in your house to see me. You can't stay here." "you know……" Jean Valjean repeated again: "You know, ma'am, I'm special. I have my eccentricities." Cosette clapped her little hands: "Madame! . . . You know! . . . Another novelty! What does this mean?" Jean Valjean smiled bitterly at her, as he did sometimes. "You are going to be a wife, you are a wife." "Not to you, father."

"Stop calling me father." "why?" "Call me Mr. Jean, or Jean, as you like." "You are not father? I am not Cosette? Monsieur Jean? What do you mean? This is a revolution, what! What is going on? Please look at me. You don't want to come and live with us either! You No more my room! How did I offend you? How did I offend you? What happened?" "No." "Then why?" "Everything is still the same as before." "Why did you change your name?" "You have changed too, you." He still smiled at her and said:

"Since you are Madame Pontmercy, I may also be Monsieur Jean." "I don't get it at all, it's all stupid. I'm going to ask my husband if I can call you Mr. Jean, and I hope he won't. How hard you make me, you have eccentricities, but you don't have to. Poor little Cosette! It is not good. You have no right to be strong, you are good!" He doesn't answer. She quickly grabbed his hands, and with an irresistible movement, she brought them close to her face, and she pressed them tightly to her neck, under her chin, which was an extremely gentle movement.

"Oh," she said to him, "please be kind!" She continued: "I say kindness means geniality, come and live here, and resume our useful short walks, there are birds here as well as Rue Plumet, come and live with us, get out of that hole in Rue de la Martial Arts, don't let us come Guess, like everyone else, come and eat with us, have breakfast with us, and be my dad." He withdrew his hand. "You don't need a father, you already have a husband." Cosette was furious. "I don't need my father anymore! This kind of talk is so unkind, I really don't know what to say!"

"If Toussaint were here," said Jean Valjean, as if one were looking for a backer, and would hold on to any branch, "she would be the first to admit that I really have my own habits. Nothing happens. Happens, I've always loved my dark corners." "It's so cold in here that I can't see clearly. It's too bad to be Mr. Jean, and I don't want you to call me 'you'." "When I came here," replied Jean Valjean, "I saw a piece of wood in the ebony shop in the Rue Saint-Louis, which I would have bought if I had been a pretty woman. A fine dresser." , in a new style, I think it is what you call fragrant wood, with inlaid flowers, and a rather large looking-glass, with drawers, and very nice."

"Hmph! Stranger!" replied Cosette. Then she blew on Jean Valjean, with clenched teeth, and with a very lovely air.This is a beauty god learning the movements of a kitten. "I'm very angry," she went on, "you've been making me angry since yesterday, and I'm so angry that I don't understand. You don't help me against Marius, and Marius doesn't support me against you. I Is alone. A bedroom I have furnished very well. If I could invite God, I'd like to be in it too. You give me the room. My lodger has run away. I call Nicolette to prepare a A good supper. 'I don't want your supper, Madame.' And my father Fauchelevent wanted me to call him Monsieur Jean, and to receive him in this horribly old, musty cellar, where the walls Beards, empty bottles instead of crystals, cobwebs instead of curtains! You're eccentric, I admit, it's your personality, but there's always a truce with newly married people. You shouldn't be eccentric right away. You actually I can live comfortably in that damned Rue des Warriors. I myself am disappointed there! What do you have against me? You make me very sad. Pooh!" Then, suddenly and solemnly, she continued, fixing Jean Valjean: "Are you unhappy because I am happy?" If you are naive, sometimes you can't consciously point it out very clearly.This question was simple for Cosette, but severe for Jean Valjean.Cosette tried to hurt him, and it broke his heart. Jean Valjean turned pale.He paused for a moment without answering, then whispered in an indescribable voice, as if talking to himself: "Her happiness is the purpose of my life. Now God can call me. Cosette, you are happy, and I am useless." "Ah! You call me 'thou'!" cried Cosette. So she jumped over and put her arms around his neck. Jean Valjean embraced her so passionately as if he had lost his mind, and it seemed to him that he had found her again. "Thank you, father!" said Cosette. Jean Valjean, who was about to be very saddened by this emotion, left Cosette's arms slowly and took up his hat. "What is the matter?" said Cosette. Jean Valjean replied: "I'm going, madam, someone else is waiting for you." At the door, he added another sentence: "I called you 'you', please tell your husband, I will not call you that anymore, please forgive me." Jean Valjean went out.Cosette was left in a daze for this inexplicable farewell.