“See here!” they said to him, “there’s a little creature there who is making eyes at you, look.”

“Have I the time,” replied the lancer, “to look at all the girls who look at me?”

This was at the precise moment when Marius was descending heavily towards agony, and was saying: “If I could but see her before I die!”⁠—Had his wish been realized, had he beheld Cosette at that moment gazing at the lancer, he would not have been able to utter a word, and he would have expired with grief.

Whose fault was it? No one’s.

Marius possessed one of those temperaments which bury themselves in sorrow and there abide; Cosette was one of those persons who plunge into sorrow and emerge from it again.