Monsieur Pontmercy, love my darling child well.
Cosette, this paper will be found; this is what I wish to say to thee, thou wilt see the figures, if I have the strength to recall them, listen well, this money is really thine.
Here is the whole matter:
White jet comes from Norway, black jet comes from England, black glass jewellery comes from Germany.
Jet is the lightest, the most precious, the most costly.
Imitations can be made in France as well as in Germany.
What is needed is a little anvil two inches square, and a lamp burning spirits of wine to soften the wax.
The wax was formerly made with resin and lampblack, and cost four livres the pound.
I invented a way of making it with gum shellac and turpentine.
It does not cost more than thirty sous, and is much better.
Buckles are made with a violet glass which is stuck fast, by means of this wax, to a little framework of black iron.
The glass must be violet for iron jewellery, and black for gold jewellery.
Spain buys a great deal of it.
It is the country of jet . . ."
Here he paused, the pen fell from his fingers, he was seized by one of those sobs which at times welled up from the very depths of his being; the poor man clasped his head in both hands, and meditated.
"Oh!" he exclaimed within himself [lamentable cries, heard by God alone], "all is over.