Cosette is to be installed in the handsomest room in the house, which, moreover, is to be luxuriously redecorated. Mlle. Gillenormand, who had nothing but contempt for the young couple when she thought they would be poor, now plans to leave them all her money. Cosette comes to visit Marius daily with Valjean as chaperon. Marius tolerates him as Cosette's father but avoids any intimacy. They discuss only such neutral subjects as politics and education. Marius remembers still that when he last saw Valjean the old man was about to shoot a policeman, but as Valjean never refers to the events of the insurrection Marius cannot accuse him openly.
Marius is also preoccupied by the problem of Thénardier. Despite the man's viciousness, Marius still feels an obligation to carry out his father's last wishes. His investigation, however, fails to unearth Thénardier: all the man's associates have either disappeared or died; Thénardier himself has been condemned to death and has dropped out of sight.
Marius feels that he also owes a debt of gratitude to the unknown stranger who saved him and brought him home, but he too cannot be found. Neither the cabdriver nor the police can provide any information about him. Marius is bedeviled by a series of puzzles: why did a total stranger save his life? Why didn't the policeman in the cab arrest him? Why has his savior not appeared to claim a reward, or at least an expression of thanks? Throughout Marius' stubborn search, Valjean keeps silent. Even when he hears Marius' awed reconstruction of what the escape through the sewers must have cost his rescuer, he does not utter a word.
