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I have the honor to salute you with respect, FANTINE." "You know that signature?" resumed the man. It certainly was Fantine's signature; Thenardier recognized it. There was no reply to make; he experienced two violent vexations, the vexation of renouncing the bribery which he had hoped for, and the vexation of being beaten; the man added: "You may keep this paper as your receipt."
Some months before this, at the moment when Fantine had just lost her last modesty, her last shame, and her last joy, she was the shadow of herself; now she was the spectre of herself. Physical suffering had completed the work of moral suffering.
Style is the form of the ideal; rhythm is its movement. We have said that Fantine was joy; she was also modesty. To an observer who studied her attentively, that which breathed from her athwart all the intoxication of her age, the season, and her love affair, was an invincible expression of reserve and modesty. She remained a little astonished.
This uproar delighted the young girls. Favourite exclaimed: "What a row! One would say that it was a pile of chains flying away." It chanced that one of these vehicles, which they could only see with difficulty through the thick elms, halted for a moment, then set out again at a gallop. This surprised Fantine. "That's odd!" said she. "I thought the diligence never stopped."
Fantine learned how to live without fire entirely in the winter; how to give up a bird which eats a half a farthing's worth of millet every two days; how to make a coverlet of one's petticoat, and a petticoat of one's coverlet; how to save one's candle, by taking one's meals by the light of the opposite window.
Brilliant of face, delicate of profile, with eyes of a deep blue, heavy lids, feet arched and small, wrists and ankles admirably formed, a white skin which, here and there allowed the azure branching of the veins to be seen, joy, a cheek that was young and fresh, the robust throat of the Juno of AEgina, a strong and supple nape of the neck, shoulders modelled as though by Coustou, with a voluptuous dimple in the middle, visible through the muslin; a gayety cooled by dreaminess; sculptural and exquisite such was Fantine; and beneath these feminine adornments and these ribbons one could divine a statue, and in that statue a soul.
In this manner a certain time elapsed. All at once Favourite made a movement, like a person who is just waking up. "Well," said she, "and the surprise?" "Yes, by the way," joined in Dahlia, "the famous surprise?" "They are a very long time about it!" said Fantine. As Fantine concluded this sigh, the waiter who had served them at dinner entered.
The postilion whipped up the horses; they had crossed the river and left Mont-Saint-Eloy behind them. The night grew more profound. But at that moment Fantine was joyous.
"One moment, if you please." Javert raised his eyes and recognized M. Madeleine. He removed his hat, and, saluting him with a sort of aggrieved awkwardness: "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor " The words "Mr. Mayor" produced a curious effect upon Fantine.
No one knows all that certain feeble creatures, who have grown old in privation and honesty, can get out of a sou. It ends by being a talent. Fantine acquired this sublime talent, and regained a little courage. At this epoch she said to a neighbor, "Bah! I say to myself, by only sleeping five hours, and working all the rest of the time at my sewing, I shall always manage to nearly earn my bread.
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