ght, taught her the art of living in misery. Back of living on little, there is the living on nothing. These are the two chambers; the first is dark, the second is black.
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. 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.
And, then, when one is sad, one eats less.
Well, sufferings, uneasiness, a little bread on one hand, trouble on the other,--all this will support me."
It would have been a great happiness to have her little girl with her in this distress.
She thought of having her come.
But what then! Make her share her own destitution!
And then, she was in debt to the Thenardiers!
How could she pay them?
And the journey! How pay for that?