without
any transition state. This sudden and sometimes severely accentuated
gravity resembled the disdain of a goddess. Her brow, her nose, her
chin, presented that equilibrium of outline which is quite distinct
from equilibrium of proportion, and from which harmony of countenance
results; in the very characteristic interval which separates the base
of the nose from the upper lip, she had that imperceptible and charming
fold, a mysterious sign of chastity, which makes Barberousse fall in
love with a Diana found in the treasures of Iconia.

Love is a fault; so be it. Fantine was innocence floating high over
fault.

CHAPTER IV--THOLOMYES IS SO MERRY THAT HE SINGS A SPANISH DITTY

That day was composed of dawn, from one end to the other. All nature
seemed to be having a holiday, and to be laughing. The flower-beds of
Saint-Cloud perfumed the air; the breath of the Seine rustled the
leaves vaguely; the branches gesticulated in the wind, bees pillaged the
jasmines; a whole bohemia of butterflies swooped down upon the yarrow,
the clover, and the sterile oats; in the august park of the King of
France there was a pack of vagabonds, the birds.

The four merry couples, mingled with the sun, the fields, the flowers,
the trees, were resplendent.

And in this community of Paradise, talking, singing, running, dancing,
chasing butterflies, plucking convolvulus, wetting their pink, open-work
stockings in the tall grass, fresh, wild, without malice, all received,
to some extent, the kisses of all, with the exception of Fantine,
who was hedged about with that vague resistance of hers composed of
dreaminess and wildness, and who was in love. "You always have a queer
look about you," said Favourite to her.

Such things are joys. These passages of happy couples are a profound
appeal to life and nature, and make a caress and light spring forth from
everything. There was once a fairy who created the fields and forests
expressly for those in love,--in that eternal hedge-school of lovers,
which is forever beginning anew, and which will last as long as there
are hedges and scholars. Hence the popularity of spring among thinkers.
The patrician and the knife-grinder, the duke and the peer, the limb
of the law, the courtiers and townspeople, as they used to say in olden
times, all are subjects of this fairy. They laugh and hunt, and there
is in the air the brilliance of an apotheosis--what a transfiguration
effected by love! Notarie