"Well—yes."
"In that case, I like it better too. That is true, Cosette is pretty. Call me Cosette."
Another time she looked at him intently, and exclaimed,—
"You are handsome, sir; you are good-looking; you have wit; you are not at all stupid; you are much more learned than I; but I challenge you with, 'I love you.'"
And Marius fancied that he heard a strophe sung by a star. Or else she gave him a little tap when he coughed, and said,—
"Do not cough, sir; I do not allow anybody to cough in my house without permission. It is very wrong to cough and frighten me. I wish you to be in good health, because if you were not I should be very unhappy, and what would you have me do?"
And this was simply divine.
Once Marius said to Cosette,—
"Just fancy; I supposed for a while that your name was Ursule."
This made them laugh the whole evening. In the middle of another conversation he happened to exclaim,—