1702 Les Miserables
CHAPTER III
THE BEGINNING
OF SHADOW
Jean Valjean suspected nothing.
Cosette, who was rather less dreamy than Marius, was gay,
and that sufficed for Jean Valjean’s happiness. The thoughts
which Cosette cherished, her tender preoccupations, Mar-
ius’ image which filled her heart, took away nothing from
the incomparable purity of her beautiful, chaste, and smil-
ing brow. She was at the age when the virgin bears her love
as the angel his lily. So Jean Valjean was at ease. And then,
when two lovers have come to an understanding, things al-
ways go well; the third party who might disturb their love
is kept in a state of perfect blindness by a restricted number
of precautions which are always the same in the case of all
lovers. Thus, Cosette never objected to any of Jean Valjean’s
proposals. Did she want to take a walk? ‘Yes, dear little fa-
ther.’ Did she want to stay at home? Very good. Did he wish
to pass the evening with Cosette? She was delighted. As he
always went to bed at ten o’clock, Marius did not come to the
garden on such occasions until after that hour, when, from