The idea that if she doesn't complain, someone else will feel they can't either is something that's never quite occurred to Cosette, not about herself. It's a funny thought. She doesn't know quite how she feels about it. But -- well, with Mary, anyway, in this one particular friendship, it's easy: "Well then," she says, determinedly, "we shall both complain to a dear friend all we like, about anything, and never fret about it! It will be part of our friendship, that we are like very old friends and schoolfellows, quite equal, and entirely at our ease."
Okay, now that's settled!
"And so or course you can ask. You can ask anything you like, my dear."
"We met in the Luxembourg Garden. It's a wonderful park in Paris, do you know -- no, I suppose you might not. I don't even know if it exists now." She laughs: what a wonderfully absurd thought, to be here in Scotland, centuries before her own birth! Before even the Luxembourg existed! "It has flowers, and trees, and paths, and the loveliest brand-new orangerie, and all sorts of things, and it's open to everyone. My father and I would go for walks there quite often. Marius did too, and we first saw each other there."
Is it disloyal to tell this to Mary? Would Marius mind? Maaaaybe, but they're friends.
"You mustn't tell him this, he'd be so embarrassed, he hates to be laughed at, but -- oh, my dear, it's so funny. He's such a shy fellow. He feels things very deeply, he's marvelously intelligent, but you know, he had no idea at all how to approach me. He would walk by, looking so handsome and so quiet and then just -- scurry off, like a rabbit, if I looked back at him. He found a handkerchief that my father had dropped, and he thought it was mine. It had a U on it -- for Ultime, you see -- and he decided my name must be Ursule. He thought that for ever so long, isn't that funny? So that was at first, we spoke properly later."
She'll be kind to Marius; she'll wait a while longer before she tells even a very dear friend who lives very far from Paris about how he held the handkerchief lovingly to his nose, and cast her significant looks that only bewildered her. But it's all endearing now. His funny ways, his earnest shy awkwardness, his deep and private depth of feeling; she loves him for all of it, now that they know each other.
no subject
Okay, now that's settled!
"And so or course you can ask. You can ask anything you like, my dear."
"We met in the Luxembourg Garden. It's a wonderful park in Paris, do you know -- no, I suppose you might not. I don't even know if it exists now." She laughs: what a wonderfully absurd thought, to be here in Scotland, centuries before her own birth! Before even the Luxembourg existed! "It has flowers, and trees, and paths, and the loveliest brand-new orangerie, and all sorts of things, and it's open to everyone. My father and I would go for walks there quite often. Marius did too, and we first saw each other there."
Is it disloyal to tell this to Mary? Would Marius mind? Maaaaybe, but they're friends.
"You mustn't tell him this, he'd be so embarrassed, he hates to be laughed at, but -- oh, my dear, it's so funny. He's such a shy fellow. He feels things very deeply, he's marvelously intelligent, but you know, he had no idea at all how to approach me. He would walk by, looking so handsome and so quiet and then just -- scurry off, like a rabbit, if I looked back at him. He found a handkerchief that my father had dropped, and he thought it was mine. It had a U on it -- for Ultime, you see -- and he decided my name must be Ursule. He thought that for ever so long, isn't that funny? So that was at first, we spoke properly later."
She'll be kind to Marius; she'll wait a while longer before she tells even a very dear friend who lives very far from Paris about how he held the handkerchief lovingly to his nose, and cast her significant looks that only bewildered her. But it's all endearing now. His funny ways, his earnest shy awkwardness, his deep and private depth of feeling; she loves him for all of it, now that they know each other.