CHAPTER II--JEAN VALJEAN AS A NATIONAL GUARD

  However, properly speaking, he lived in the Rue Plumet, and he hadarranged his existence there in the following fashion:--

  Cosette and the servant occupied the pavilion; she had the bigsleeping-room with the painted pier-glasses, the boudoir with the gildedfillets, the justice's drawing-room furnished with tapestries and vastarm-chairs; she had the garden. Jean Valjean had a canopied bed ofantique damask in three colors and a beautiful Persian rug purchased inthe Rue du Figuier-Saint-Paul at Mother Gaucher's, put into Cosette'schamber, and, in order to redeem the severity of these magnificentold things, he had amalgamated with this bric-à-brac all the gay andgraceful little pieces of furniture suitable to young girls, an étagère,a bookcase filled with gilt-edged books, an inkstand, a blotting-book,paper, a work-table incrusted with mother of pearl, a silver-giltdressing-case, a toilet service in Japanese porcelain. Long damaskcurtains with a red foundation and three colors, like those on thebed, hung at the windows of the first floor. On the ground floor, thecurtains were of tapestry. All winter long, Cosette's little house washeated from top to bottom. Jean Valjean inhabited the sort of porter'slodge which was situated at the end of the back courtyard, with amattress on a folding-bed, a white wood table, two straw chairs, anearthenware water-jug, a few old volumes on a shelf, his beloved valisein one corner, and never any fire. He dined with Cosette, and he had aloaf of black bread on the table for his own use.

  When Toussaint came, he had said to her: "It is the young lady who isthe mistress of this house."--"And you, monsieur?" Toussaint replied inamazement.--"I am a much better thing than the master, I am the father."

  Cosette had been taught housekeeping in the convent, and she regulatedtheir expenditure, which was very modest. Every day, Jean Valjean puthis arm through Cosette's and took her for a walk. He led her to theLuxembourg, to the least frequented walk, and every Sunday he took herto mass at Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, because that was a long way off.As it was a very poor quarter, he bestowed alms largely there, and thepoor people surrounded him in church, which had drawn down upon himThénardier's epistle: "To the benevolent gentleman of the church ofSaint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas." He was fond of taking Cosette to visit thepoor and the sick. No stranger ever entered the house in the Rue Plumet.Toussaint brought their provisions, and Jean Valjean went himself forwater to a fountain near by on the boulevard. Their wood and wine wereput into a half-subterranean hollow lined with rock-work which lay nearthe Rue de Babylone and which had formerly served the chief-justice asa grotto; for at the epoch of follies and "Little Houses" no love waswithout a grotto.

  In the door opening on the Rue de Babylone, there was a box destined forthe reception of letters and papers; only, as the three inhabitants ofthe pavilion in the Rue Plumet received neither papers nor letters, theentire usefulness of that box, formerly the go-between of a loveaffair, and the confidant of a love-lorn lawyer, was now limited tothe tax-collector's notices, and the summons of the guard. For M.Fauchelevent, independent gentleman, belonged to the national guard;he had not been able to escape through the fine meshes of the census of1831. The municipal information collected at that time had even reachedthe convent of the Petit-Picpus, a sort of impenetrable and holy cloud,whence Jean Valjean had emerged in venerable guise, and, consequently,worthy of mounting guard in the eyes of the town-hall.

  Three or four times a year, Jean Valjean donned his uniform and mountedguard; he did this willingly, however; it was a correct disguise whichmixed him with every one, and yet left him solitary. Jean Valjean hadjust attained his sixtieth birthday, the age of legal exemption; but hedid not appear to be over fifty; moreover, he had no desire to escapehis sergeant-major nor to quibble with Comte de Lobau; he possessedno civil status, he was concealing his name, he was concealing hisidentity, so he concealed his age, he concealed everything; and, as wehave just said, he willingly did his duty as a national guard; the sumof his ambition lay in resembling any other man who paid his taxes. Thisman had for his ideal, within, the angel, without, the bourgeois.

  Let us note one detail, however; when Jean Valjean went out withCosette, he dressed as the reader has already seen, and had the air ofa retired officer. When he went out alone, which was generally at night,he was always dressed in a workingman's trousers and blouse, and worea cap which concealed his face. Was this precaution or humility? Both.Cosette was accustomed to the enigmatical side of her destiny, andhardly noticed her father's peculiarities. As for Toussaint, shevenerated Jean Valjean, and thought everything he did right.

  One day, her butcher, who had caught a glimpse of Jean Valjean, said toher: "That's a queer fish." She replied: "He's a saint."

  Neither Jean Valjean nor Cosette nor Toussaint ever entered or emergedexcept by the door on the Rue de Babylone. Unless seen through thegarden gate it would have been difficult to guess that they lived inthe Rue Plumet. That gate was always closed. Jean Valjean had left thegarden uncultivated, in order not to attract attention.

  In this, possibly, he made a mistake.