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CHAPTER I
THE HISTORY OF A
PROGRESS IN BLACK
GLASS TRINKETS
And in the meantime, what had become of that mother
who according to the people at Montfermeil, seemed to
have abandoned her child? Where was she? What was she
doing?
After leaving her little Cosette with the Thenardiers, she
had continued her journey, and had reached M. sur M.
This, it will be remembered, was in 1818.
Fantine had quitted her province ten years before. M. sur
M. had changed its aspect. While Fantine had been slowly
descending from wretchedness to wretchedness, her native
town had prospered.
About two years previously one of those industrial facts
which are the grand events of small districts had taken
place.
This detail is important, and we regard it as useful to de-
velop it at length; we should almost say, to underline it.