"I owe the Préfecture my day's work." "That's true." "If I leave the carriage, the first inspector who sees me will arrest me. You know that." "Yes, I know it." "To-day I am bought by Pharos" (the government). "No matter, that old fellow bothers me." "All old men bother you, and yet you ain't a chicken yourself." "He is in the first carriage." "Well, what then?" "In the bride's carriage." "What next?" "So he is the father." "How does that concern me?" "I tell you he is the father." "You do nothing but talk about that father." "Listen." "Well, what?" "I can only go away masked, for I am hidden here, and no one knows I am here. But to-morrow there will be no masks, for it is Ash Wednesday, and I run a risk of being nailed. I shall be obliged to go back to my hole, but you are free." "Not quite." "Well, more so than I am." "Well, what then?" "You must try to find out where that wedding party is going to." "Going to?" "Yes." "Oh, I know." "Where to, then?" "To the Cadran Bleu." "But that is not the direction." "Well, then! to La Rapée." "Or elsewhere." "They can do as they like, for weddings are free." "That is not the thing. I tell you that you must try to find out for me what that wedding is, and where it comes from." "Of course! that would be funny. It's so jolly easy to find out a week after where a wedding party has gone to that passed during the Mardi Gras. A pin in a bundle of hay. Is it possible?" "No matter, you must try. Do you hear, Azelma?" The two files recommenced their opposite movement on the boulevard, and the carriage of masks lost out of sight that which contained the bride. CHAPTER II. JEAN VALJEAN STILL HAS HIS ARM IN A SLING. To realize one's dream--to whom is this granted? There must be elections for this in heaven; we are the unconscious candidates, and the angels vote. Cosette and Marius had been elected. Cosette, both at the mayoralty and at church, was brilliant and touching. Toussaint, helped by Nicolette, had dressed her. Cosette wore over a skirt of white taffetas her dress of Binche lace, a veil of English point, a necklace of fine pearls, and a crown of orange-flowers; all this was white, and in this whiteness she was radiant. It was an exquisite candor expanding and becoming transfigured in light; she looked like a virgin on the point of becoming a goddess. Marius's fine hair was shining and perfumed, and here and there a glimpse could be caught, under the thick curls, of pale lines, which were the scars of the barricade. The grandfather, superb, with head erect, amalgamating in his toilette and manners all the elegances of the time of Barras, gave his arm to Cosette. He took the place of Jean Valjean, who, owing to his wound, could not give his hand to the bride. Jean Valjean, dressed all in black, followed and smiled.