When Grantaire woke the next morning and found Éponine gone, at first he couldn't breathe. He bolted upright in bed, head whipping right and left, eyes darting frantically about the room. Lurching to his feet, he rushed to the door and ripped it open. The hallway being empty, he hurtled down the steps and similarly burst through the front door of the building.
Éponine was nowhere to be seen.
It was only then that his breath came back to him. It came back to him in a tremendous rush, evidently filling his lungs to their maximum capacity. For only such an amount of air could have then produced the dreadful, heart-rending howl that ripped from him.
Day after day, she did not come back to him. And for once, Grantaire hoped that the reason was she was hiding her bruises. For corpses don't bruise.