2268 Les Miserables
Cosette was the daughter. They said what was wanted and
they said it with zeal. An acte de notoriete was drawn up.
Cosette became in the eyes of the law, Mademoiselle Eu-
phrasie Fauchelevent. She was declared an orphan, both
father and mother being dead. Jean Valjean so arranged it
that he was appointed, under the name of Fauchelevent, as
Cosette’s guardian, with M. Gillenormand as supervising
guardian over him.
As for the five hundred and eighty thousand francs, they
constituted a legacy bequeathed to Cosette by a dead per-
son, who desired to remain unknown. The original legacy
had consisted of five hundred and ninety-four thousand
francs; but ten thousand francs had been expended on the
education of Mademoiselle Euphrasie, five thousand francs
of that amount having been paid to the convent. This lega-
cy, deposited in the hands of a third party, was to be turned
over to Cosette at her majority, or at the date of her mar-
riage. This, taken as a whole, was very acceptable, as the
reader will perceive, especially when the sum due was half
a million. There were some peculiarities here and there, it is
true, but they were not noticed; one of the interested parties
had his eyes blindfolded by love, the others by the six hun-
dred thousand francs.
Cosette learned that she was not the daughter of that old
man whom she had so long called father. He was merely a
kinsman; another Fauchelevent was her real father. At any
other time this would have broken her heart. But at the in-
effable moment which she was then passing through, it cast
but a slight shadow, a faint cloud, and she was so full of joy