796 Les Miserables
eral minutes as though incapable of speaking. At length he
exclaimed:—
‘Oh! that would be a blessing from the good God, if I
could make you some little return for that! Save your life!
Monsieur le Maire, dispose of the old man!’
A wonderful joy had transfigured this old man. His
countenance seemed to emit a ray of light.
‘What do you wish me to do?’ he resumed.
‘That I will explain to you. You have a chamber?’
‘I have an isolated hovel yonder, behind the ruins of the
old convent, in a corner which no one ever looks into. There
are three rooms in it.’
The hut was, in fact, so well hidden behind the ruins,
and so cleverly arranged to prevent it being seen, that Jean
Valjean had not perceived it.
‘Good,’ said Jean Valjean. ‘Now I am going to ask two
things of you.’
‘What are they, Mr. Mayor?’
‘In the first place, you are not to tell any one what you
know about me. In the second, you are not to try to find out
anything more.’
‘As you please. I know that you can do nothing that is
not honest, that you have always been a man after the good
God’s heart. And then, moreover, you it was who placed me
here. That concerns you. I am at your service.’
‘That is settled then. Now, come with me. We will go and
get the child.’
‘Ah!’ said Fauchelevent, ‘so there is a child?’
He added not a word further, and followed Jean Valjean