Chapter 4 Marius
Nine years pass. Valjean and Cosette are living in the Rue Plumet in Paris, in a house with a big garden. It is a quiet street and nobody comes there. This pleases Valjean, because he is still afraid of Inspector Javert.
Cosette is now a young woman. She is tall, with golden-brown hair. She is beautiful, but there are many beautiful faces in the world. The wonderful thing about Cosette’s face is her smile – a slow, warm, gentle smile, like sunlight after rain.
And now we must meet Marius, and his young friend Gavroche. Marius is a student, a young man with many ideas but no money. Paris is full of young men like this. Marius has a grandfather (his father is dead), but he does not talk to him. Their political ideas are very different. At seventeen, he leaves home with 30 francs, his watch, and a small bag of clothes. Now, five years older, he lives with other students, and they talk all night about books and ideas, politics and government, life and death. All students are like this. They live for ideas, and do a little work here and there. When they need to.
Gavroche is a child of the Paris streets. He is eleven or twelve years old, and wears a man’s trousers and a woman’s shirt (a kind woman gave these clothes to him). He lives on the streets, knows everybody, goes everywhere, and enjoys life, Well, why not? He knows no other life, only this one.
珂赛特出落成一位少女，她身材高挑，一头金褐色的长发。她很美丽，但是世界上的的美人也不少。珂赛特最美的地方是她的微笑-慢慢绽放，温暖温柔地微笑。就像雨后的阳光。
现在我们必须说说马吕斯和他年轻的朋友伽弗洛什。马吕斯是个学生，一个有很有想法但是没有钱的年轻人。巴黎大把这样的人。马吕斯的爷爷（他的父亲死了）不和他说话。他们的政治观点天差地别。在他17岁的时候，他带着30法郎、他的表、一小包衣服离开了家。现在，5年过去了，他和其他的学生生活在一起，他们整完讨论着书籍和信念，政治和政府，生活和死亡。所有的学生都这样。他们为信念而活，只有需要的时候，他们才跑去打一点零工。
Marius loved walking through the streets and gardens of Paris, and he often walked in the Luxembourg garden. One day in the garden he saw a man with a young girl. The man was about sixty, and the girl, Marius thought, was about seventeen. He did not see her eyes, but he saw her golden-brown hair and her slow gentle smile.
He walked past them once, and did not look back. But he came to the Luxembourg the next day, and the day after that, and for the next five days. The man and the girl were always there. He could not stop looking at the girl. He wanted very much to see that smile again.
On the seventh day the girl turned her head and looked at Marius. She looked into his eyes across the garden, and that look went, like a bullet from a gun, into Marius’s heart. There were no words, but at once Marius knew and the girl knew. This was love.
Life stopped for Marius then. He spent hours in the Luxembourg, and every time he saw her, the sun came out and all the birds in the garden began singing.
But the man began to look at Marius too, and his face was not friendly. Marius was afraid, and he went to Gavroche.
有一次，他从他们身边走过，但没有回头。但第二天、第三天以及接来下的5天他都跑去了卢森堡公园。这个男人和女孩常常来这个。他不能将目光从女孩身上移开。他十分希望再次看到那天使般的微笑。
第七天女孩回头看了看马吕斯。她的目光穿过了花园，就像枪里的一颗子弹，射进了马吕斯的心。不需要任何的话语，这一刻马吕斯和女孩同时意识到。这就是爱。
马吕斯的生活自此定格。他长时间地呆在卢森堡公园内，每一次他看见她时，就好似阳光冲破黑暗，鸟儿们在花园里开始歌唱。
但是那个男人也注意到马吕斯，他的面色不善。马吕斯害怕了，于是他去找伽弗洛什。
Spring came, and Cosette began to go out into the garden at Rue Plumet. She was usually alone. Her old servant, Toussaint, was always in the kitchen, and Father (Jean Valjean) was in his room, reading.
Cosette was sad. She remembered the young man in the Luxembourg garden, but Father no longer wanted to go there. But that evening in the Rue Plumet garden, something very wonderful happened.
She heard a voice, a man’s voice. She looked round, and it was him.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘Please don’t be afraid. I just wanted to … You remember the Luxembourg garden? I saw you there for the first time … I can’t forget you, day and night I think about you … Please don’t be afraid … You see, I love you … It just happened to me … I can’t stop it … Don’t be afraid … please.’
‘Then – you love me?’ he said.
‘Of course! You know that.’
A kiss. No words. They did not need words. Later, words came. The story of his life, the story of her life, everything. Between lovers, everything is interesting.
When they were done with words, Cosette put her head on Marius’s shoulder and asked:
‘What is your name?’
‘My name is Marius. And yours?’
‘Cosette.’
Every evening they met secretly in the garden at Rue Plumet. A kiss, a gentle laugh, whispered words of love – it was the spring and summer of their young lives.
Cosette looked at him with frightened eyes. ‘Must we go, Father?’ she said.
Valjean watched her face. ‘We must,’ he said. ‘Get ready to leave very soon.’
There was a change in Cosette. Valjean remembered the young man in the Luxembourg garden, and he looked at Cosette’s beautiful young face. He was afraid – afraid of losing his dear daughter.
