CHAPTER IV.
A DOLL COMES ON THE STAGE.
The file of open-air shops, it will be remembered, ran as far asThénardier's inn. These stalls, owing to the approaching passage ofpersons going to midnight mass, were all lit up with candles in paperfunnels, which, as the schoolmaster, who was seated at this moment inThénardier's tap-room, declared, produced a "magical effect." To makeup for this, not a star glittered in the sky. The last of these shops,exactly facing Thénardier's door, was a child's toy establishment, allflashing with tinsel, glass beads, and magnificent things in block-tin.Right in front the dealer had placed upon a white napkin an enormousdoll, nearly two feet high, which was dressed in a pink crape gown,with golden wheat-ears in her hair,--which was real hair,--and hadenamel eyes. The whole day had this marvel been displayed, to theamazement of all passers-by under ten years of age; but not a mother inMontfermeil had been rich enough or extravagant enough to give it toher child, Éponine and Azelma had spent hours in contemplating it, andeven Cosette had ventured to take a furtive look at it.
At the moment when Cosette went out, bucket in hand, though she feltso sad and desolate, she could not refrain from raising her eyes tothe prodigious doll, the "lady" as she called it. The poor childstopped petrified, for she had not seen this doll so close before.The whole stall seemed to her a palace, and this doll was not a doll,but a vision. Joy, splendor, wealth, and happiness appeared in a sortof chimerical radiance to the unhappy little creature who was deeplyburied in mournful and cold wretchedness. Cosette measured with thesimple and sad sagacity of childhood the abyss which separated herfrom this doll. She said to herself that a person must be a queen or aprincess to have a "thing" like that. She looked at the fine dress, thelong smooth hair, and thought, "How happy that doll must be!" She couldnot take her eyes off this fantastic shop, and the more she lookedthe more dazzled she became, and she fancied she saw Paradise. Therewere other dolls behind the large one, which appeared to her fairiesand genii. The tradesman, who walked about at the back of the shop,seemed to her something more than mortal. In this adoration she forgoteverything, even the task on which she was sent; but suddenly the roughvoice of her mistress recalled her to the reality. "What, you littledevil, you have not gone! Just wait till I come to you, you littleviper!" Madame Thénardier had taken a look out into the street, andnoticed Cosette in ecstasy. The child ran off with her bucket, takingenormous strides.