If he were to announce her origin bluntly, it might prevent the marriage, who knows?
He extricated Cosette from all difficulties.
He concocted for her a family of dead people, a sure means of not encountering any objections. Cosette was the only scion of an extinct family; Cosette was not his own daughter, but the daughter of the other Fauchelevent. Two brothers Fauchelevent had been gardeners to the convent of the Petit-Picpus. Inquiry was made at that convent; the very best information and the most respectable references abounded; the good nuns, not very apt and but little inclined to fathom questions of paternity, and not attaching any importance to the matter, had never understood exactly of which of the two Fauchelevents Cosette was the daughter. They said what was wanted and they said it with zeal.
An acte de notoriete was drawn up.
Cosette became in the eyes of the law, Mademoiselle Euphrasie Fauchelevent.
She was declared an orphan, both father and mother being dead.
Jean Valjean so arranged it that he was appointed, under the name of Fauchelevent, as Cosette''s guardian, with M. Gillenormand as supervising guardian over him.
As for the five hundred and eighty thousand francs, they constituted a legacy bequeathed to Cosette by a dead person, who desired to remain unknown.▲本▲作▲品▲由▲思▲兔▲網▲提▲供▲線▲上▲閱▲讀▲