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IX . Fifteen Hundred Francs Early on Christmas morning the stranger told the innkeeper that he wanted to take Cosette away with him . The innkeeper saw at once that this man had money . He decided to get as much of it as he could . He spoke with tears in his eyes about how much he loved the child , and how much she had cost him . “ How much do you want ? ” asked the stranger . Thénardier thought for a moment . “ Fifteen hundred francs . ” The stranger took out an old wallet and put fifteen hundred francs on the table without a word . Then he took a little black dress and a black shawl from his bag . These were the clothes of a child in mourning for her mother , and he asked the innkeeper’s wife to dress the girl in them . Half an hour later the stranger and Cosette , with her new doll in her arms , walked out of the village on the road to Paris . Thénardier regretted his price as soon as they were gone . He ran after them and caught up with them at the edge of the forest . He said that he could not give the child to a man he did not know . He wanted either more money , or a letter from her mother . The stranger silently took out a paper and gave it to him : a letter , signed by Fantine , which asked Thénardier to give Cosette to the man who brought the letter . Thénardier looked at the stranger’s strong shoulders and thick stick , and at the empty forest around them . He was sorry that he had not brought his gun , and he went home with nothing more . In Paris , Jean Valjean rented two rooms in an old , half - ruined building in a poor and lonely part of the city , which was called the Gorbeau house . There , for the first time in their lives , both he and Cosette found someone to love . Cosette learned to laugh and to play , and he taught her to read . He had never had a wife or a child . He had never been loved . Now he loved this little girl with the strength of a father , a mother and a brother all at once . When she called him “ Father ” , he felt as if heaven had opened . But the old woman who looked after the building watched them with curiosity . She saw that the old man in the yellow coat went out only at night and gave money to beggars . Once she saw him take a thousand - franc note out of the lining of his coat . Soon there was talk in the neighbourhood . One evening , when Jean Valjean gave a coin to an old beggar , he saw the beggar’s face in the light of a lamp , and his heart stood still . It looked like Javert . A few days later he heard a man walking softly into the house , and through the keyhole he saw him . It was Javert . Javert had come to Paris , had heard of the story of the drowned convict and the rich stranger who had taken a child from Montfermeil , and wanted to know the truth .
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