During the month of May, Marius visits Cosette every evening in the garden, and they live an idyll of chaste adoration. They exchange trivial observations charged with emotion. They laugh lightheartedly. Marius pays Cosette admiring compliments and Cosette confesses her love. They simply enjoy the plenitude of existence. Valjean is completely unaware of Marius' visits. The young man comes when the old man has retired. Cosette is extremely amenable, never objecting to Valjean's plans and suggestions.
Unfortunately, complications are about to disturb the perfect simplicity of the couple's lives. One day, Marius meets Eponine, whom he has completely forgotten. He finds the meeting awkward and she, for different reasons, is embarrassed too. They exchange only a few words. The next day, Marius sees Eponine again. He avoids her, but she follows him to the Rue Plumet and hides in a dark corner outside the gate, lost in unhappy thoughts.
Soon after, six men meet in front of the house. It is Thénardier's gang, planning to carry out the robbery of Valjean's house, which they had first discussed in prison. Eponine abruptly leaves her hiding place and, as a diversionary tactic, embraces her father and greets his accomplices. When cajolery proves ineffective, she turns to defiance. Alone, this frail creature challenges the entire gang and even when threatened with death declares she will rouse the whole neighborhood at the first hostile move. Her firmness alarms the thieves, who reluctantly abandon their project and scatter in the night
