Jean Valjean, however, is right to fear him, just because he is young and in love and because nature is therefore on his side. Good parenthood always ends in a painful separation because it is a parent's function to prepare the child to leave home. Jean Valjean has courageously taken the first step in this direction already by taking Cosette out of the convent and allowing her the liberty to choose what her future life will be. Nature, in making her beautiful, takes the next step; Marius is simply the inevitable conclusion of a series of developments.
The garden of the Rue Plumet is the image of Cosette's spirit — innocent, beautiful, and wild — and Jean Valjean has until now been privileged to share its springtime joy. Cosette's true companion, however, is on his way, and once he arrives Jean Valjean will again be shut out in the shadows of his past, as the scene with the convicts at the Barrière du Maine implies.
