Fantine listens, taking all this in. "He stole bread, Cosette said. That was his crime! How silly and wicked, to blame him for it!"

Javert and Madeleine would both be dead, if the book was right about all. Fantine doesn't know what to make of that, but she turns it over and keeps it in the back of her mind.

"Perhaps he was too ashamed to tell you, or ask for help."