From Indignity to Indignity

Half an hour later, Cosette found she could do little more than totter behind her mother, who was running to the factory as if they were being pursued by wolves.

"Maman! Wait!" Cosette cried out when she could not keep up.

Fantine wheeled around with a mortified look. "I'm sorry, petite. But we are in a dreadful hurry."

At the edge of her vision, however, Fantine noticed another woman hurry by. "Louise!" she shouted quickly.

Louise, who was also running late, had to catch herself by grabbing onto a post. "Goodness, Fantine! What is it?"

Fantine gave her friend a supplicant look. "I must ask a very big favor out of you. Things have gone dreadfully wrong, and I need someone to watch my child for the day."

Louise drew back. "My mother has work."

"Your concierge?"

"She is often drunk."

Fantine bit back a cry of despair. "Louise, what can I do? I had her with me in the factory once, but it wasn't such a good thing. If I attempted it once again, Mme. Victurnien will make it her business to know!"

"Madame does not need to know," Louise said brightly. "I know a back way into the workshop by a door from outside into the storeroom and the passage. It leads past M. Madeleine's office, and since he is often busy, no one will catch us. You can bring your little girl in by that way, and hide her better so."

Fantine nodded bravely, seeing no other solution in sight. Trustingly, she followed her friend down a side alley. She felt Cosette's little fist tighten around her skirt as they passed a crate filled with squeaking rats. At the end of the alley, Louise pulled at a heavy door, but only succeeded in having the handle come off in her grip.

"The window," Fantine whispered. Louise laughed dismally as she worked the shutter open and hoisted herself up on the ledge.

Just then, the church bell chimed the hour. "Hurry!" Louise cried. "Hand me the child!"

Fantine lifted Cosette up to Louise's waiting hands. Louise whisked Cosette onto the sill before disappearing herself into the room. Cosette scurried after her, apparently sensing danger. Fantine pushed herself up onto the ledge and nearly slipped as she vaulted into the room.

She landed in a heap on the floor just as a door swung open. "Intruders!" a foreman cried.

Fantine held out her hands to cover her face. "No! It's just me, Madame Fantine!"

The foreman yanked her to her feet roughly. Fantine nearly retched on smelling the alcohol on his breath. "We'll see what Madame Victurnien, or better yet, M. Madeleine, thinks of this," he hissed in her ear.

"Oh God...Cosette, please don't say a thing...Louise, please keep her safe..." Fantine begged silently as she was led off. However, before the foreman could shut the door, someone slipped out a dark corner.

For the very first time, the very sound of Cosette's voice calling her was enough to let loose Fantine's tears of despair.

"This girl was breaking in the factory! You should see that clearly, Monsieur."

"Mme. Victurnien, if she was truly an intruder, she would not have brought a child with her. "

"M. Mayor, with all due respect, I do think her conduct is unexplainable. It will be a poor example to all the women."

Even though she could only hear their voices, Fantine felt herself trembling all over. Even Cosette's repeated questions or attempts to put a smile on her face could do nothing to ease Fantine's disturbed state.

"And all of this with Gilles still out there," she murmured. "I should have been more careful not to let Gilles out of the house. I shouldn't have stopped to talk to M. Madeleine and left Bernadette alone in the market. I shouldn't have left Paris. I shouldn't..."

The door to the office opened slightly. "Monsieur the Mayor wishes to speak with you," Mme. Victurnien said coldly to Fantine.

Fantine dried her face and combed out her now tangled blond tresses. Taking Cosette's hand, she walked into M. Madeleine's office.

The gentleman was standing away from his desk, with a deeply troubled look on his face. "Have a seat," he said to Fantine. Fantine obliged, and set Cosette in her lap.

M. Madeleine cleared his throat. "A report has reached me that you were seen in the storeroom, having climbed in through the window. That is all I know, but I do wish to hear your reason for being in that area," he said firmly. "And also for your daughter's presence in the factory, without permission, apparently."

Fantine felt her hands grow cold. Shakily she told her tale, beginning from Gilles' disappearance up to her discovery. However, she did her best to conceal Louise's part in it. When at last she finished, she was aware that her throat had gone dry.

Mme. Victurnien merely gave M. Madeleine a sour look. "She answers well."

M. Madeleine rubbed his temples. "At best, I can fine you, Fantine, for that disruption. That, and warn you not to repeat such conduct. As for your daughter, she may stay again in the factory today, but I must ask you to find more appropriate arrangements in advance."

Fantine would have thrown herself at M. Madeleine's feet were she not holding Cosette. "Thank you, Monsieur!" she exclaimed gratefully.

M. Madeleine nodded to her and to Mme. Victurnien. "Both of you should go to the workshop now," he said. "And Madame Fantine, I should remind you that there is a school for the young ones in this town, you know."

Fantine nodded shamefacedly. "I shall remember, Monsieur."