During the whole of the conversation Cosette, as if an instinct warned
her that she was being talked about, did not take her eyes off her
mistress. She listened, and heard two or three indistinct words here
and there. In the mean while, the drinkers, who were three parts
intoxicated, struck up their unclean song again with redoubled gayety,
and Madame Thénardier went to take part in the bursts of laughter.
Cosette, under her table, looked at the fire, which was reflected in
her fixed eyes; she had begun rocking the species of doll which she had
made, and while lulling it to sleep, sang in a low voice,--"My mother
is dead, my mother is dead, my mother is dead." On being pressed again
by the landlady, the yellow man, the "millionnaire," consented to take
some supper.
"What will you have, sir?"
"Bread and cheese."
"He is certainly a beggar," the landlady thought. The drunkards were
still singing their song, and the child, under the table, still sang
hers. All at once Cosette broke off: she turned, and perceived, lying
on the ground a few paces from the kitchen table, the doll which
the children had thrown down on taking up the kitten. She let the
wrapped-up sword, which only half satisfied her, fall, and then slowly
looked round the room. The landlady was whispering to her husband and
reckoning some change, Éponine and Azelma were playing with the kitten;
the guests were eating, drinking, or singing, and no one noticed her.
She had not a moment to lose, so she crept on her hands and knees from
under the table, assured herself once again that she was not watched,
and seized the doll. A moment after she was back in her seat, and
turned so that the doll which she held in her arms should be in the
shadow. The happiness of playing with this doll was almost too much
for her. No one had seen her, excepting the traveller, who was slowly
eating his poor supper. This joy lasted nearly a quarter of an hour.
But in spite of the caution which Cosette took, she did not notice
that one of the doll's feet was peeping out, and that the fire lit it
up very distinctly. This pink luminous foot emerging from the glow
suddenly caught the eye of Azelma, who said to Éponine, "Look, sister!"
The two little girls were stupefied. Cosette had dared to take their
doll! Éponine rose, and without letting the cat go, ran to her mother
and plucked the skirt of her dress.
"Let me be," said the mother; "what do you want now?"
"Mother," said the girl, "just look!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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