"They sat peaceably together, the girl gaily chattering and the man saying little but glancing at her occasionally with a smile of profound fatherly affection." – Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Valjean was vaguely listening to Cosette talk about something or other when she looked at him, raised her eyebrows and said, "well, what do you think, Father?"
Valjean had to think for a minute before he recalled what she had just said. He realized the child had been going on about some political debate.
"I'm sorry, Cosette, could you repeat that?"
She looked up briefly at the sky in a way which he knew meant she was exasperated with him and his oddities, but being a dutiful daughter she indulged him. He stared at her for a moment, not knowing what to say. Honestly, he didn't give much thought to politics himself, and was having a hard time grasping she knew this particular issue.
She looked dismayed. "Do you disagree with me Father? I thought you'd be of the same mind as me!"
He was, in fact, of the same mind as her. He was simply still having trouble with the fact that she knew all this. "I do agree child," he said. "I'm just wondering how you came by this opinion?"
She sighed. "Why, it's only common sense Father!"
"Yes, but, how did you even know about the names? The dates? The complaints?"
Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "From the gazette Father. Where else?"
Valjean tried to remember what he did the gazette when he was done with it each day. He had assumed Toussaint was the one to throw it away. He supposed he was wrong.
"Do you and Toussaint talk about these things?" Valjean was becoming alarmed. He didn't think Toussaint was the kind of woman to concern herself with politics but he was starting to learn he didn't know much about anything at all.
Cosette gestured with her hand dismissal. "Not her, she doesn't care."
Valjean was relieved. At least he hadn't lost touch with *everything* going on around him.
"Sometimes when we go to the market though, I talk with some other girls about it."
Well, as long as it was with other girls she was talking with. Valjean didn't really care what Cosette talked about with other girls, as long as indeed they were girls, and not strange young men lurking awkwardly and conspicuously nearby.
"Do you disapprove Father?" It had never occurred to Cosette before that he might disapprove of her talking about politics because she was a girl, but now it did. After all, he said that he agreed with her, so his uneasiness must have had another source. Cosette vaguely knew there were many men who were harsh with women, but having grown up only among women, she did not have any first-hand experience. As for Valjean, she had never really thought of him as being part of that mysterious group of beings called "men", only that he was her father and it was his whim to indulge any of hers. But now she was remembering that her father *was* part of that odd group, and he had to be one of the most odd, she was sure.
"Of what?"
"Of my talking with the girls about such things."
He smiled. "No, not at all. As long as you reflect on it with careful thought, and do nothing to offend your conscience."
Cosette smiled back in relief. She continued on the topic she had been on before they went off on their tangent. Instead of nodding gently to what she was saying like he did before, he interrupted her several times and asked her questions, and twice they had small disagreements, but, as Cosette noted with satisfaction, her own good common sense steered her father to reason as well.