CHAPTER II--A NEST FOR OWL AND A WARBLER

  It was in front of this Gorbeau house that Jean Valjean halted. Likewild birds, he had chosen this desert place to construct his nest.

  He fumbled in his waistcoat pocket, drew out a sort of a pass-key,opened the door, entered, closed it again carefully, and ascended thestaircase, still carrying Cosette.

  At the top of the stairs he drew from his pocket another key, withwhich he opened another door. The chamber which he entered, and whichhe closed again instantly, was a kind of moderately spacious attic,furnished with a mattress laid on the floor, a table, and severalchairs; a stove in which a fire was burning, and whose embers werevisible, stood in one corner. A lantern on the boulevard cast a vaguelight into this poor room. At the extreme end there was a dressing-roomwith a folding bed; Jean Valjean carried the child to this bed and laidher down there without waking her.

  He struck a match and lighted a candle. All this was prepared beforehandon the table, and, as he had done on the previous evening, he beganto scrutinize Cosette's face with a gaze full of ecstasy, in which theexpression of kindness and tenderness almost amounted to aberration. Thelittle girl, with that tranquil confidence which belongs only to extremestrength and extreme weakness, had fallen asleep without knowing withwhom she was, and continued to sleep without knowing where she was.

  Jean Valjean bent down and kissed that child's hand.

  Nine months before he had kissed the hand of the mother, who had alsojust fallen asleep.

  The same sad, piercing, religious sentiment filled his heart.

  He knelt beside Cosette's bed.

  lt was broad daylight, and the child still slept. A wan ray of theDecember sun penetrated the window of the attic and lay upon theceiling in long threads of light and shade. All at once a heavily ladencarrier's cart, which was passing along the boulevard, shook the frailbed, like a clap of thunder, and made it quiver from top to bottom.

  "Yes, madame!" cried Cosette, waking with a start, "here I am! here Iam!"

  And she sprang out of bed, her eyes still half shut with the heavinessof sleep, extending her arms towards the corner of the wall.

  "Ah! mon Dieu, my broom!" said she.

  She opened her eyes wide now, and beheld the smiling countenance of JeanValjean.

  "Ah! so it is true!" said the child. "Good morning, Monsieur."

  Children accept joy and happiness instantly and familiarly, beingthemselves by nature joy and happiness.

  Cosette caught sight of Catherine at the foot of her bed, and tookpossession of her, and, as she played, she put a hundred questions toJean Valjean. Where was she? Was Paris very large? Was Madame Thénardiervery far away? Was she to go back? etc., etc. All at once she exclaimed,"How pretty it is here!"

  It was a frightful hole, but she felt free.

  "Must I sweep?" she resumed at last.

  "Play!" said Jean Valjean.

  The day passed thus. Cosette, without troubling herself to understandanything, was inexpressibly happy with that doll and that kind man.