He sounds so odd, so grieved, and Fantine doesn't want to grieve him further, but she must, or else he'll go on with this nonsense. "The Baroness! But this is what I mean! Why do you call Cosette that? You've raised her as a daughter. I don't call her Baroness. The idea! She'd be so hurt if I did, the poor dear child. She wants her mother to act like her mother, and her father to act like her father."

Fantine sighs. "Oh, I know, you've raised her to be a grand young lady, you've given her everything, and I'm so grateful. But that doesn't mean you must use these strange manners, not when they're making her so unhappy. She doesn't want you to just visit a little every day, in a cold room where she can't even give you dinner. She wants you to properly be with her, even live with her."

Here she smiles. "I understand if you don't want to live with a couple of high-spirited young people. They can be tiring! Especially if you don't like this Marius? Cosette says he's the best of men, but I thought perhaps you didn't like him, and that's why you didn't want to live with him? But surely you can visit properly, at least, and have dinner, and stop calling Cosette madame and Baroness. It's hurting her so."