"Well, what can I do for you, Mme Jacquemin?" enquired the Mayor with welcoming equanimity, shuffling the papers on his desk into an orderly formation of three piles.
Adele took both the shuffling and the equanimity for bad signs. The shuffling meant that he was pretending to be busy - her husband pulled exactly the same trick, as did both Javert and Daviot. Perhaps all men did, she mused. And as for the equanimity, well, it made things difficult. It was hard to be on the offensive with someone so resolutely nice. Madeleine was widely held to be a kind man - a very saint - but for Adele his kindness was only a form of inscrutability, disarming all objection or enquiry.
"Is this about your daughter? She's a very able worker, so my foreman tells me. Very well liked. We shall be sorry to lose her, but I should like to make her a small gift of - "
"No, M'sieur le Maire, I'm afraid it's not about that at all. I've come to speak to you about Monsieur Javert - "
"I see."
"You see, the thing is . . " Adele groped around in her brain to find exactly the right words for what she wanted to say. They would not come so in frustration she exclaimed, "It's not fair! It's just not fair what you're doing to him!" She had not meant to accuse the mayor and she awaited in trepidation his response. Madeleine's voice remained as level and cordial as ever when he answered
"What exactly do you mean, Mme Jacquemin?"
Adele again found herself lost for word. She felt in some obscure way that she was being played with, mocked and so when she finally thought of something to say she did not bother to keep the hard edge out of her voice: "I'm not educated like you, Monsieur le Maire, or like the judges at the Assize court. I only know what I see with my own eyes. If you had only seen how miserable the inspector is - "
Doubtless thinking of Fantine, the mayor only said coldly, "I know what I have seen."
"I've no doubt that Monsieur le Maire does - and I'm sure he'll be good enough to extend me the same confidence! All I can say is this, I know that M'sieur Javert and yourself have not always seen eye to eye - you're too different for that - but you can't deny that he cares for the child, that he loves her as if she was his own - "
"But she is not his own . . ."
Although Adele had raised this objection herself only the day before, something in the Mayor's smooth tone irritated her and she looked at him coldly. "Monsieur le Maire does not have children himself. He has not lost a child. Perhaps I was wrong to expect him to understand what that feels like, to be separated from a child one has cared for - "
As she spoke these last words Adele noticed something change in the Mayors face. It became sadder and harder, taking on a pained, haunted expression. She stopped speaking instantly - despite her quick temper, Adele hated to hurt people.
"Forgive me, M'sieur Madeleine! I spoke out of turn - it was not my place - "
"Mme Jacquemin, you spoke what was in your heart, as a good woman should. I cannot blame you for that. Now, would you like to see Cosette?"
"Very much, M'sieur. The truth is, I've missed her - she's almost like one of my own"
"You are one of nature's mothers, Mme Jacquemin, that is doubtless why you take Monsieur Javert's predicament so much to heart. But it should also help you to understand the suffering of the poor girl in the hospital. I was taking Cosette to meet her mother today - if you would like to accompany me? I think it would do everyone concerned good."