"In the first place," said Fauchelevent, "you must begin by not setting foot outside this cottage, neither you nor the little one. One step in the garden, and we are done." "That is true." "Monsieur Madeleine," Fauchelevent continued, "you have arrived at a very lucky moment, I ought to say a very unhappy one, for one of our ladies is dangerously ill. In consequence of this, folk will not look much this way. It seems that she is dying, and the forty hours' prayers are being said. The whole community is aroused, and that occupies them. The person who is on the point of going off is a saint. In fact, though, we are all saints here; the only difference between them and me is that they say 'our cell,' and I say 'my cottage.' There will be a service for the dying, and then the service for the dead. For to-day we shall be all quiet here; but I do not answer for to-morrow." "Still," Jean Valjean observed, "this cottage is retired; it is hidden by a sort of ruin; there are trees, and it cannot be seen from the convent." "And I may add that the nuns never approach it." "Well?" Jean Valjean asked. The interrogation that marked this "well" signified "I fancy that we can remain concealed here," and it was to this interrogation that Fauchelevent replied: "There are the little ones." "What little ones?" Jean Valjean asked. As Fauchelevent opened his mouth to answer, a stroke rang out from a bell. "The nun is dead," he said, "that is the knell." And he made Jean Valjean a sign to listen. A second stroke rang out. "It is the passing bell, Monsieur Madeleine. The bell will go on so minute after minute for twenty-four hours, till the body leaves the church. You see they play about; at recreations they need only lose a ball, and in spite of the prohibition, they will come and look for it here and ransack everything. Those cherubs are little devils." "Who?" Jean Valjean asked. "The little ones; I can tell you that you would soon be discovered. They would cry out, 'Why, it's a man!' But there is no danger to-day, for there will be no recreation. The day will be spent in prayer. You hear the bell, as I told you, one stroke a minute;--it is the knell." "I understand, Father Fauchelevent, they are boarders." And Jean Valjean thought to himself: "It is a chance for educating Cosette." Fauchelevent exclaimed,-- "By Job, I should think they are boarders! They would sniff around you, and then run away. To be a man here is to have the plague, as you can see; a bell is fastened to my paw as if I were a wild beast." Jean Valjean reflected more and more deeply. "This convent would save us," he muttered, and then added aloud,-- "Yes, the difficulty is to remain." "No," said Fauchelevent, "it is to go out." Jean Valjean felt the blood rush back to his heart. "Go out?" "Yes, Monsieur Madeleine, in order to come in, you must go out." And, after waiting till a knell had died out in air, Fauchelevent continued,--