Chapter 363 Second, the light that has dried up the oil returns to light

One day Jean Valjean came downstairs, walked two or three steps in the street, and sat down on a boundary-stone.It was on this rock that Gavroche had seen him meditating on the night of the 5th and 6th of June; he remained there for a few minutes, and then went upstairs again.This is the final swing of the pendulum.He didn't leave the room the next day.On the third day, he didn't get out of bed. His concierge, cooking him a simple meal, a little vegetable or a few potatoes with lard, she looked at the brown clay dish and cried: "Why didn't you eat yesterday, poor fellow!"

"It is eaten," replied Jean Valjean. "The dish is full." "Look at the jug, it's empty." "It means you're only drinking water, it's not the same as eating." Jean Valjean said: "What if I want only water?" "It's called thirst, and if you don't eat at the same time, it's called fever." "I'll eat it tomorrow." "Or on Holy Trinity. Why not today? Is there such a thing as: 'I'll eat it tomorrow!' Leave the whole dish I made! My cabbage tastes good!" Jean Valjean shook the old woman's hand:

"I promise you to eat it," he said to her kindly. "I am very dissatisfied with you," replied the porter. Jean Valjean saw very little of anyone but this woman.Paris has streets no one walks and houses no one enters.It was such a street and such a house that he lived. When he was still able to go to the streets, he bought a small brass cross from the tinker for a few sous, and hung it on a nail before his bed.It is always rewarding to look at this gallows. A week passed without Jean Valjean moving a step in the room.He is always lying down.The gatekeeper said to her husband, "The old man up there won't get up or eat. He won't live long. He's very sad. I'm sure his daughter won't marry well."

The man at the gate replied with the authority of a husband: "If he has money, he should have a doctor. If he has no money, he has no doctor. If he has no doctor, he must die." "What if he had one?" "He'll die too," said the man at the door. The gatekeeper used an old knife to remove the grass growing in the crevices of the paving stones in front of the gate, which she called her, and muttered as she did so: "Poor, such a righteous old man! He is as innocent as a chicken." She saw a local doctor passing by at the end of the street, and she took it upon herself to invite him upstairs.

"It's on the third floor," she said to him, "you can go in. The old man is in bed and can't move, and the key has been stuck in the lock on the door." The doctor saw Jean Valjean and spoke to him. When he came downstairs, the woman at the door asked him: "How is it, doctor?" "Your patient is very ill." "What disease is it?" "Every kind of disease, but no disease. It seems that this man has lost a relative, which will kill him." "What did he say to you?" "He said he was in good health." "Are you still here, doctor?"

"Come," replied the doctor, "but another one needs to come back."