Part I, Book 7, Chapter 6
Soeur Simplice Is Put to the Test
We’ve been wrapped up in Madeleine’s drama for the last couple of chapters, but Fantine is part of this story too, and we haven’t checked in on her in a while. How’s she doing?
Not great, as it turns out. While Madeleine is having the worst trip ever, the doctor at the hospital is so worried about Fantine that he asks the nuns to notify him immediately when Madeleine arrives. It seems extremely problematic that everything in this situation is so reliant on Madeleine being physically present—we really need healthcare directives here.
Misfortune and snow-induced illness have physically altered Fantine: she’s now wrinkled, wasted away, and gray-haired. She is 25 years old. TWENTY FIVE! I swear, once again, this is all one big elaborate PSA for young women to not sleep with random bros.
Madeleine shows up each day at 3 PM on the dot, but is a no-show today. Fantine waits expectantly—just like a little cat—in vain. At 5 PM, with no sign of the mayor, Sister Simplice hears Fantine say quietly, “But it’s wrong of him not to come today, since I’ll be gone tomorrow.”
😭😭😭
She then sings a little lullaby to Cosette—this is most definitely the seed of “Come to Me”—and Simplice, like audiences all over the world today when Fantine sings “Cosette, the light is fading,” is brought to tears. Madeleine really should have notified the nuns of his planned absence!!!
Simplice sends a maid to ask around and find out where the mayor is; she returns with the report that Madeleine was last seen leaving town in the early morning, with some people saying he was going to Arras, others Paris. Fantine catches that they’re talking about the mayor and gets really agitated, demanding to know where Madeleine is.
The maid suggests lying and saying the mayor is busy with mayor business, but Simplice cannot tell a lie and tells Fantine, truthfully, that the mayor is gone.
In the same way that Madeleine in the previous chapter was overjoyed at hearing what was ostensibly bad news, Fantine is thrilled to hear that he is gone. “He’s gone to fetch Cosette,” she concludes, and is so happy at the prospect of seeing her long-lost daughter tomorrow that she becomes lively and animated.
When the doctor comes back that evening to check on Fantine, he finds her stronger and, it seems, healthier, full of excitement about the impending reunion with her child. He’s astonished and remarks to Sister Simplice that seeing Cosette the next day may well have a miraculous effect on Fantine’s health.
Alas, though, we know full well that Madeleine isn’t on his way to fetch Cosette, and is fully aware that he may have just doomed Cosette and left Fantine to die for nothing. And having seen the limitations of travel in this time period, there is no possible way the mayor is walking through the door with Cosette tomorrow.
This BOOK, man.
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