[CHAPTER V.]
A NIGHT BEHIND WHICH IS DAY.
At the knock he heard at his door Jean Valjean turned round.
"Come in," he said feebly.
The door opened, and Cosette and Marius appeared. Cosette rushed into the room. Marius remained on the threshold, leaning against the doorpost.
"Cosette!" said Jean Valjean, and he sat up in his chair, with his arms outstretched and opened, haggard, livid, and sinister, but with an immense joy in his eyes. Cosette, suffocated with emotion, fell on Jean Valjean's breast.
"Father!" she said.
Jean Valjean, utterly overcome, stammered, "Cosette! She—you—Madame! It is thou! Oh, my God!"
And clasped in Cosette's arms, he exclaimed,—
"It is you! You are here; you forgive me, then!"