But unsuspected dangers threaten their tranquility. Cosette is about to enter adolescence, an age of temptations and longings for which she is completely unprepared. Her ignorance, carefully protected by the convent, only enhances the intensity of desires that she experiences without understanding. Valjean, a bachelor quite unused to women, is unable to help her.
One day, Cosette suddenly realizes that she is very pretty. What her mirror has hinted is confirmed by the comments of a passerby and the observations of the old servant Toussaint. With inexpressible satisfaction, she realizes that her skin is a satiny white, her hair lustrous and beautiful, her blue eyes splendid. Valjean, however, is dismayed by her beauty; he is dimly aware that any change threatens his happiness and that another may some day steal Cosette from him. Nevertheless, he does not prevent her from ordering an elegant new wardrobe nor from parading her gracefulness in public.
It is at this time that Cosette meets Marius in the park. Subconsciously she notes his good looks, his air of intelligence, his gentleness. Then their eyes meet, and his glance produces the same effect on her as hers on him. Love, in turn, unleashes a multitude of incomprehensible and contradictory emotions in her. At first she is angry at Marius' apparent indifference, then she boldly approaches him in the park. Later, melancholy overtakes her, and she suffers the traditional sleeplessness, agitation, and fever. Still her love remains distant, "a mute contemplation, the deification of a stranger."
