arpet-bag."
"You must hand it over," struck in the man''s voice again.
"Of course I shall give it to you," said the mother.
"It would be very queer if I were to leave my daughter quite naked!"
The master''s face appeared.
"That''s good," said he.
The bargain was concluded.
The mother passed the night at the inn, gave up her money and left her child, fastened her carpet-bag once more, now reduced in volume by the removal of the outfit, and light henceforth and set out on the following morning, intending to return soon.
People arrange such departures tranquilly; but they are despairs!
A neighbor of the Thenardiers met this mother as she was setting out, and came back with the remark:--
"I have just seen a woman crying in the street so that it was enough to rend your heart."
When Cosette''s mother had taken her departure, the man said to the woman:--
"That will serve to pay my note for one hundred and ten francs which falls due to-morrow; I lacked fifty francs.
Do you know that I should have had a bailiff and a protest after me? You played the mouse-trap nicely with your young ones."
"Without suspecting it," said the woman.
BOOK FOURTH.--TO CONFIDE IS SOMETIMES TO DELIVER INTO A PERSON''S POWER
CHAPTER II
FIRST SKETCH OF TWO UNPREPOSSESSING FIGURES