CHAPTER II.
JEAN VALJEAN A NATIONAL GUARD.
Properly speaking, however, Jean Valjean's house was at the Rue Plumet,and he had arranged his existence there in the following fashion:Cosette and the servant occupied the pavilion, she had the bestbedroom, with the painted press, the boudoir with the gilt beading, thepresident's drawing-room with its hangings and vast easy chairs, andthe garden. Jean Valjean placed in Cosette's room a bed with a canopyof old damask in three colors, and an old and handsome Persian carpet,purchased at Mother Gaucher's in the Rue Figuier St. Paul; while, tocorrect the sternness of these old splendors, he added all the lightgay furniture of girls, an étagère, bookshelves with gilt books, adesk and blotting-case, a work-table inlaid with mother-of-pearl, asilver dressing-case, and toilet articles of Japanese porcelain. Longdamask curtains of three colors, like those on the bed, festooned thefirst-floor windows, while on the ground-floor they were of tapestry.All through the winter Cosette's small house was warmed from top tobottom, while Jean Valjean himself lived in the sort of porter's lodgeat the end of the back yard, which was furnished with a mattressand common bedstead, a deal table, two straw-bottomed chairs, anearthenware water-jug, a few books on a plank, and his dear valise ina corner, but he never had any fire. He dined with Cosette, and blackbread was put on the table for him; and he had said to Toussaint, whenshe came, "This young lady is mistress of the house." "And you, sir?"Toussaint replied, quite stupefied. "Oh! I am much better than themaster,--I am the father."
Cosette had been taught house-keeping in the convent, and checked theexpenses, which were very small. Daily Jean Valjean took Cosette for awalk, leading to the most sequestered path of the Luxembourg, and everySunday they attended Mass at the Church of St. Jacques du Haut-pas,because it was a long distance off. As it is a very poor district,he gave away a considerable amount of alms, and the wretched flockedaround him in the church, which produced the letter from Thénardier,"To the Benevolent Gentleman of the Church of St. Jacques du Haut-pas."He was fond of taking Cosette to visit the indigent and the sick,but no stranger ever entered the house in the Rue Plumet. Toussaintbought the provision, and Jean Valjean himself fetched the water froma fountain close by, on the boulevard. The wood and wine were kept ina semi-subterranean building covered with rock-work, near the doorin the Rue de Babylone, which had formerly served the president as agrotto, for in the age of Follies and Petites Maisons, love was notpossible without a grotto. In the door opening on the Rue de Babylonethere was a letter-box, but, as the inhabitants of the house in theRue Plumet received no letters, this box, once on a time the go-betweenin amourettes, and the confidant of a love-sick lawyer, was now onlyof service to receive the tax-papers and the guard-notices. For M.Fauchelevent, annuitant, belonged to the National Guard, and had beenunable to escape the close meshes of the census of 1831. The municipalinquiries made at that period extended even to the convent of theLittle Picpus, whence Jean Valjean emerged venerable in the eyes of themayoralty, and consequently worthy of mounting guard. Three or fourtimes a year Jean Valjean donned his uniform and went on duty, and didso readily enough, for it was a disguise which enabled him to mix witheverybody, while himself remaining solitary. Jean Valjean had attainedhis sixtieth year, or the age of legal exemption; but he did not lookmore than fifty; besides, he had no wish to escape his sergeant-majorand cheat Count Lobau. He had no civil status, hid his name, hisidentity, his age, everything, and, as we just said, he was a willingNational Guard,--all his ambition was to resemble the first-comer whopays taxes. The ideal of this man was internally an angel, externally abourgeois.
Let us mention one fact, by the way. When Jean Valjean went out withCosette he dressed himself in the way we have seen, and looked likea retired officer; but when he went out alone, and he did so usuallyat night, he was attired in a workman's jacket and trousers, and acap whose peak was pulled deep over his eyes. Was this precaution orhumility? Both at once. Cosette was accustomed to the enigmaticalside of her destiny, and hardly noticed her father's singularities; asfor Toussaint, she revered Jean Valjean, and considered everything hedid right. One day her butcher, who got a glimpse of her master, said,"He's a queer looking stick," and she replied, "He's a--a--a--saint."All three never left the house except by the gate in the Rue deBabylone; and unless they were noticed through the garden gate it wouldbe difficult to guess that they lived in the Rue Plumet. This gate wasalways locked, and Jean Valjean left the garden untended that it mightnot be noticed. In this, perhaps, he deceived himself.