364 Les Miserables
CHAPTER I
SISTER SIMPLICE
The incidents the reader is about to peruse were not all
known at M. sur M. But the small portion of them which
became known left such a memory in that town that a seri-
ous gap would exist in this book if we did not narrate them
in their most minute details. Among these details the read-
er will encounter two or three improbable circumstances,
which we preserve out of respect for the truth.
On the afternoon following the visit of Javert, M. Mad-
eleine went to see Fantine according to his wont.
Before entering Fantine’s room, he had Sister Simplice
summoned.
The two nuns who performed the services of nurse in the
infirmary, Lazariste ladies, like all sisters of charity, bore
the names of Sister Perpetue and Sister Simplice.
Sister Perpetue was an ordinary villager, a sister of char-
ity in a coarse style, who had entered the service of God as
one enters any other service. She was a nun as other women
are cooks. This type is not so very rare. The monastic orders
gladly accept this heavy peasant earthenware, which is eas-
ily fashioned into a Capuchin or an Ursuline. These rustics