The ensuing night and morning had quite a bit in common with a convent slumber party held in the house of a lord, right down to Cosette, frenzied, attempting to shove a hysterical Eponine under the bed as Toussaint knocked anxiously at the door.

"M-mademoiselle? B-breakfast!"

"Un Moment Toussaint!" She sang out sweetly, at last sending Eponine darting, a tanned streak, into the toilette as she desperately tried to smother her infectious giggles. "Oh Toussaint, do come in!"

The maid opened the door and shuffled into the chamber; oblivious to the renewed flurry of giggles hidden beneath her mistress's hand. She had the covers up to her neck, to hide what she was not wearing, and half feigned an expression of weary illness. The half was this: in good faith, the girl was exhausted, and not some little flushed.

"I have a guest, my dear, a friend from my old school. If you will set another place for breakfast?"

"Cert-tainly, M-mademois-selle." Replied Toussaint without a blink, but with a slight note of concern... Cosette did look a bit feverish at that! "I H-have your w-wash and shall I b-bring up extra t-towels?"

"That will not be necessary, merci." Toussaint shuffled out. So did Cosette's giggles. And so did Eponine's head, from the bathroom.

"Friend from...!?" Eponine asked, eyebrows flirting dangerously with her scalp in both amusement and alarm. Cosette laughed and wriggled under the covers.

"Yes, the Convent school in which I grew up. You speak well enough to imitate a bourgeois... we'll simply tell father that you left before taking your vows, some time before I did, and I met you on a walk or some other such; then invited you to stay with me last night. And tonight, if you wish, also." She grinned and let the cover slip from he shoulders. Eponine, shy and aghast, shuffled slowly out from the toilette; she was dressed in Cosette's slip, only slightly less damp than the night before.

"In case the maid had come in." she explained, a bit embarrassed. Cosette laughed and clapped her hands.

"Come, we'll get you a fresh one, dearest 'Ponine." She swept out of the bed and kissed the girl quickly on the cheek, then set about the task of finding suitable dry undergarments and dresses for them both. Eponine was indeed a good deal smaller and thinner than Cosette, but the latter did have some quite pretty frocks, which she'd outgrown, that fit Eponine very well, though attempting to get them on the girl proved an adventure in itself.

Cosette; having had no one to teach her the secrets and tricks of woman's apparel herself, was both delighted and immensely frustrated to have such a pupil as Eponine. Stays and garters, in particular, were the source of much wry amusement on the part of the gamine, who confessed;

"Really, what's the use of all of these extra barriers? Cosette, Cherie, you're doing it all backwards!" And then she would subsequently un-fasten the corresponding doo-hicky on her blushing instructor, who just didn't quite have the heart to scold her for it; but rather laughed and kissed the offending hand. Eponine sighed thoughtfully at this, musing,

"Mais alors-- these cursed layers may seem in the way here, but I daresay they'd prove useful sometime. Anyone who didn't know how to get them on should have a devil of a time, trying to get them off!" And she laughed deeply, with a wink. Cosette laughed too, and blushed a very dark pink, understanding that Eponine had said something risqué but not in the slightest fathoming what.

By and by, Cosette and Eponine arrived downstairs to a half-cold breakfast and Monsieur Fauchelevant's benign patience.

"Papa! You have been waiting." Cosette scolded brightly as her father rose from his seat to greet them. The young lady flounced up to him and planted a kiss on his rough cheek, which made him smile. "You should have at least had a cup of tea or some marmalade."

"Marmalade, my dear?" bushy white eyebrows framed an expression of amused astonishment. "But I never eat marmalade."

Cosette shot a mischievously long-suffering look at Eponine. "Ah, I never win with him." She reached out for Eponine's hand. "Papa, I would like you to meet an old, old friend of mine from school, Eponine Lambert. Her family is from the country and she is come to Paris for a visit. She left school not long before ourselves, and I must confess I had despaired of ever seeing her again!"

She smiled rapturously at Eponine and squeezed her hand, for it was trembling. Sweetly Cosette led the waif to her father, who kissed her paternally on the forehead.

"It's is very good to meet you, my dear." The old man smiled, and bade Eponine sit between himself and Cosette. Once seated, Eponine exhaled deeply in relief, only to have her lungs clench again as M. Fauchelevant continued, "Tell me Mademoiselle, how did you manage to locate us? It has been quite a number of years since my daughter and yourself were girls at the convent, and we are somewhat out of the way."

Eponine glanced quickly at Cosette, who smiled cheerfully. Swallowing, Eponine summoned her best Bourgeois-posh tone, at the very top of her register.

"Well, Monsieur, it was really Cosette who found me. You see, my brother is a student at university; I am come to Paris visiting him. He was at classes yesterday, and so not at liberty to install me straightway in a hotel, and so left me to amuse myself at the shops. His flat is not terribly far from here, and I was passing-- well, it was really rather bad of me, but I am much more fond of walking than of fiacrès-- on my way to meet him. Then, I heard someone calling me, and I had no idea who it could have been, but tiens! It was my old, old friend Cosette, waving through a garden gate! We spoke a while, and when I told her of my situation-- my brother's landlady does not allow girls of any sort in the rooms, and quite rightly too!-- she was kind enough to insist that I stay here in your lovely home, and not in some impersonal hotel room. My brother was only too pleased to agree; lodgings suitable for ladies are not inexpensive. But of course, Monsieur may object." She added the last hesitantly, but Monsieur seemed quite satisfied.

"No, I do not object." he smiled, pressing Eponine's hand. "I think it good that Cosette should have a girl-friend."

The remark was blasé, but Eponine still thought smugly, how little he knows! before nearly melting in relief. She'd been quite terrified that the old philanthropist would have recognized the urchin that had lured him so fatally to Fabantou-Jondrette-Thénardier's apartment, however long ago that had been. She had been, however, a good deal more successful than she had realized in breaking the habit of argot in speech; she sounded like nothing so much as a rather lower-middle class girl of decent manners.

Monsieur Fauchelevant spooned up the last of a cold boiled egg. "So, Mademoiselle Eponine, where in the country do your parents live?" Eponine's blood froze, as did Cosette's beside her. They had not discussed that. Eponine hoped that the old man attributed her undoubtedly Parisian accent to her upbringing in the Convent School (a Convent! She still guffawed inwardly at the thought of that), in the Petit-Pipcus. Quickly, she blurted the first thing that came to mind.

"Montfermiel, Monsieur. Outside of Montfermiel, really." She added hastily, "I mean, my family owns land in that general area."

"I see." If M. Fauchelevant was at all disturbed by the mention of the town from which he had liberated Cosette, he showed no sign of it. "So. What does your brother study, at the University?"

"Law." She replied unhesitatingly. "He is in his third year. He is marrying a girl from home as soon as he graduates, and opening his own law practice, God willing." She invented the last on the spur of the moment, making a stab at the root of this particular line of inquiry.

The guess proved a good one, as the old man smiled broadly at this. "Wish him my luck, Mademoiselle." having finished his breakfast, M. Fauchelevant stood and bowed to the young ladies.

"It is good, Mademoiselle, that you will be staying here. I shall be gone for a short time and it will be good for Cosette to have to company. Are you three days at liberty?"

"Oh yes, Monsieur. My brother will be quite glad to have me out of the way, and to save the cost of the hotel. He has many important papers to write, you know."

"Of course." He smiled again at her. "Very good. If you two will excuse me?"

"Papa! you are not going away again!? So soon?" Cosette sprang to her feet with an exclamation and a pout.

"I am afraid I must, my dear Cosette. I have some business that I must conclude. Ladies." He bowed again, and, after several petulantly refused attempts, was finally permitted to kiss Cosette's forehead, and exit the room into the backyard. Eponine exhaled heavily, and, after watching him go Cosette grabbed her hand and squeezed.

"Oh Eponine! I am always so lonely when Papa is away." She cast a forlorn look at the door into the backyard, then turned hopefully again to her friend. "You truly meant it...?"

"Oh!" Eponine squeezed her hand in return, "I did and I do! What else have I to do?" She said the last with a wicked gleam in her eye. Cosette mocked offense, allowing her dismay at her father's news to dissipate. The exchange would have ended in kisses if not for the proximity of Toussaint, clearing the table. Instead they settled for laughter, brushed fingers, and glances that promised much, later.

"Sh-Shall I have a r-room m-made up f-for Mademoiselle Ep-ponine?" Asked the maid when she had finished, unwittingly casting a cloud over the girls' jocularity.

"That will not be necessary." Replied Cosette, as coolly as she could, "We have so much to catch up on... it will be most pleasant, to have a three night sleep-over. Don't you think that sounds pleasurable, Toussaint?" Eponine gaped and Cosette's composure broke for the space of a giggle, but Toussaint was oblivious.

"Very n-nice, Mademoiselle. H-has Mademoiselle Ep-ponine any b-bags or P-Parcels?" Fortunately, it had been so long since Cosette had worn the frock Eponine had on, Toussaint did not recognise it. Eponine's expression turned to panic, Cosette's was unruffled.

"They are at her brother's flat."

Eponine, an older hand at this game, added, "I had very little, really. It is of no consequence."

Cosette was not to be outdone, "She had expected to go shopping, here in the city, and brought mostly empty space in her bags." Eponine regarded Cosette with an expression of frank admiration.

Toussaint, only vaguely catching the conversation enough to decide that it seemed all to fit, nodded briefly and replied, "A-as you S-say, Mademoiselle." Then, she shuffled out, after her manner. The girls, feeling terrible and bold, collapsed in a flurry of giggles and delight. believe me love, it was the nightingale...