Fantine has readily found a job in M. Madeleine's factory. Unaware of her child's plight, she feels a momentary surge of optimism as her fortune improves. Even though she is not very skillful, she earns enough to make ends meet. She rents a little room and furnishes it on credit. But clouds gather quickly on her peaceful horizon. Her letters to the Thénardiers arouse the curiosity of the town's busybodies. A certain Mme. Victurnien, a woman of malevolent piety, undertakes to investigate the mystery and discovers Fantine's secret.
Unbeknown to Madeleine, Fantine is abruptly fired by his assistant as "immoral." Unable to leave town because of her debts, she works at home, sewing coarse shirts for the soldiers of the garrison. Her ill-paid occupation earns her 12 sous a day and her daughter's board costs 10. Fantine works interminable hours and economizes desperately. In addition, she suffers the opprobrium of the whole town. At first she cannot face the accusing fingers. Soon, however, she adopts a defiant attitude that rapidly becomes brazen.
Her situation grows worse. Overwork undermines her health. She is racked by a dry cough and contracts a fever. Her debts accumulate and the Thénardiers hound her unmercifully. One day they send her a frightful letter. Cosette needs a new wool skirt for the winter. It costs at least 10 francs. That night Fantine goes to the barber and sells him her hair for 10 francs and spends it on a skirt. Her mutilation causes her joy rather than regret. "My child is not cold any more," she thinks; "I dressed her with my hair." Unfortunately her sacrifice does Cosette no good. The Thénardiers have invented the story of the skirt to extort more money from her. Furious at having been unwittingly outsmarted, they give the skirt to their daughter Eponine and Cosette continues to shiver in the cold.
