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CHAPTER I
FULL LIGHT
The reader has probably understood that Eponine, hav-
ing recognized through the gate, the inhabitant of that Rue
Plumet whither Magnon had sent her, had begun by keep-
ing the ruffians away from the Rue Plumet, and had then
conducted Marius thither, and that, after many days spent
in ecstasy before that gate, Marius, drawn on by that force
which draws the iron to the magnet and a lover towards
the stones of which is built the house of her whom he loves,
had finally entered Cosette’s garden as Romeo entered the
garden of Juliet. This had even proved easier for him than
for Romeo; Romeo was obliged to scale a wall, Marius had
only to use a little force on one of the bars of the decrepit
gate which vacillated in its rusty recess, after the fashion of
old people’s teeth. Marius was slender and readily passed
through.
As there was never any one in the street, and as Marius
never entered the garden except at night, he ran no risk of
being seen.
Beginning with that blessed and holy hour when a kiss
betrothed these two souls, Marius was there every eve-