He bowed to the very earth before the mayor and left the room.
Fantine stood aside from the door and stared at him in amazement as he passed.
Nevertheless, she also was the prey to a strange confusion.
She had just seen herself a subject of dispute between two opposing powers. She had seen two men who held in their hands her liberty, her life, her soul, her child, in combat before her very eyes; one of these men was drawing her towards darkness, the other was leading her back towards the light.
In this conflict, viewed through the exaggerations of terror, these two men had appeared to her like two giants; the one spoke like her demon, the other like her good angel. The angel had conquered the demon, and, strange to say, that which made her shudder from head to foot was the fact that this angel, this liberator, was the very man whom she abhorred, that mayor whom she had so long regarded as the author of all her woes, that Madeleine! And at the very moment when she had insulted him in so hideous a fashion, he had saved her!
Had she, then, been mistaken? Must she change her whole soul?
She did not know; she trembled. She listened in bewilderment, she looked on in affright, and at every word uttered by M. Madeleine she felt the frightful shades of hatred crumble and melt within her, and something warm and ineffable, indescribable, which was both joy, confidence and love, dawn in her heart.
When Javert had taken his departure, M. Madeleine turned to her and said to her in a deliberate voice, like a serious man who does not wish to weep and who finds some difficulty in speaking:--
"I have heard you.
I knew nothing about what you have mentioned. I believe that it is true, and I feel that it is true.
I was even ignorant of the fact that you had left my shop.
Why did you not apply to me?
But here; I will pay your debts, I will send for your child, or you shall go to her.
You shall live here, in Paris, or where you please.
I undertake the care of your child and yourself.
You shall not work any longer if you do not like.
I will give all the money you require.
You shall be honest and happy once more.
And listen! I declare to you that if all is as you say,--and I do not doubt it,-- you have never ceased to be virtuous and holy in the sight of God. Oh! poor woman."
This was more than Fantine could bear.