After Thénardier's arrest, Marius immediately leaves his room and moves in with Courfeyrac, who receives him with the simple hospitality of a true friend. Marius has two reasons for the move. First, the viciousness he has witnessed makes him loathe the Gorbeau tenement; and second, he does not want to testify against Thénardier. As the months go by, Marius sinks back into a state of depression. The happiness that he has glimpsed has again vanished. This time the loss of his beloved seems irreparable; he cannot find even the most tenuous link with her. He is disturbed, also, by her "father's" equivocal behavior. The old gentleman's refusal to call for help and his quiet escape are highly suspicious.
Material difficulties compound his misery. Once again Marius is plagued by poverty. Too discouraged to work, he has quit his job and abandons himself to a dangerous reverie that increases his lethargy. Absorbed by the vision of his lost love, he contemplates impassively his inexorable disintegration. Unfit for practical activities, he is only capable of absurd and romantic gestures. In a notebook he writes ethereal love letters destined never to be read. Because the Thénardiers called the girl he loves "the Lark," her Montfermeil nickname, he makes regular pilgrimages to an isolated area called "the Field of the Lark."
