But as she leaves the confines of the fair, the night grows darker and the last glimmers of light vanish at the edge of the forest. The countryside is transformed into a nightmarish vision, a world of ghosts, animals, and unknown terrors. So great is Cosette's terror, she does not notice her coin fall into the spring as she feverishly fills her pail.
The return trip is agonizingly slow. Every few steps she stops to put down her inhumanly heavy burden and rests. Suddenly the pail becomes weightless. A man has come up from behind and like a rescuing angel has silently taken the handle from her grasp. A stranger just arrived from Paris, the man appears weary and grieved, and his clothes indicate a genteel poverty. After getting off the stagecoach, he has plunged into the forest instead of entering the village and so has noticed Cosette.
The stranger accompanies her to the inn and on the way elicits her pathetic story. When she gives him her name, Cosette, he seems to receive a shock. When they arrive at the inn, on Cosette's timid suggestion he gives her back the pail to save her from a beating by the irascible Mme. Thénardier. Mme. Thénardier greets Cosette crossly and the stranger, on account of his unprepossessing appearance, with insolence. But he is indifferent to his reception and to the wine Cosette has automatically brought him; all his attention seems concentrated on the child.
