Fantine arrived at the door of Mayor Madeleine’s factory and was promptly hired. She had no experience in making jewelry, so she worked slowly. As a result, she did not receive much money for each day’s work, but it was enough.
Fantine thought only of Cosette and their future together. Because Fantine wasn’t married, she was careful never to mention her little girl to anyone. She rented a small room and borrowed money to buy furniture for it. Fantine was earning her own living, and she was almost happy.
Meanwhile, thanks to Fantine, Monsieur Thenardier had been able to pay his debt. Within a month the family needed more money, so Madame Thenardier took Cosette’s clothes to Paris, where she sold them. When this money ran out, the Thenardiers began to resent Cosette. They dressed her in rags and fed her leftovers. She ate under the table with the dog and the cat.
Since Fantine could not read or write, she hired a man to write her letters for her. She wrote twice a month to the Thenardiers. Their reply was always the same: Cosette is doing wonderfully well.
After a year Monsieur Thenardier demanded that Fantine pay 12 francs a month instead of 7. Fantine gladly sent the money because she thought Cosette was being well cared for. In reality Madame Thenardier loved her own daughters, Eponine and Azelma, and hated Cosette. Seeing their mother treating Cosette cruelly, the two girls did the same.
Meanwhile people in Fantine’s hometown watched her and gossiped about her. More than one person was envious of her thick blond hair and fine white teeth. It became common knowledge that she wrote regularly to the innkeeper in Montfermeil. The man who wrote her letters could not keep a secret; he was the one who revealed that she had a child. An old woman who liked to gossip wanted to find out for herself what was going on. She traveled to Montfermeil, talked to the Thenardiers, and actually saw Cosette.
Monsieur Thenardier decided to demand 15 francs a month from Fantine. Somehow the young woman managed to make the payments. But soon after the old woman returned from Montfermeil, Fantine was summoned by the factory supervisor. This supervisor told Fantine that she was no longer employed and handed her fifty francs. The supervisor also told her that the mayor had suggested that she leave the city.
Fantine was shocked. "I cannot leave the city," she thought. "I am in debt for my rent and my furniture." Fifty francs wasn’t enough to pay her debts, never mind transportation. Ashamed and distraught, Fantine slipped away to her room. After that, it did not take long for Fantine to fall behind on her payments to the Thenardiers.
Two more years passed. If Fantine had been able to return to Montfermeil, she would not have recognized her child. Cosette, so fresh and pretty when she’d arrived at the inn, was now thin and pale. Cruelty had made her ugly. Her large blue eyes were filled with sadness. She was a miserable sight to see in the winter, sweeping the sidewalk before daybreak. Everyone called her the Lark because she was like a tiny, busy bird. Only this poor lark never sang.
What had become of Fantine? When she was fired from the factory, she thought that she would get a job as a servant. She went from one house to another, but nobody wanted her.
The furniture dealer to whom she owed money said, "If you leave the city, I’ll have you arrested as a thief!"
Her landlord also threatened her. So Fantine divided the little money she had between the furniture dealer and the landlord. It still was not enough. She began to make shirts for the soldiers at the local garrison. She earned 12 sous a day; Cosette was costing her 10 sous. She lived as cheaply as she could, doing without heat or even a candle. Her clothes became more and more ragged. Fantine had one friend: her neighbor Marguerite.
"If I sleep only five hours a night and work the rest of the time, I might have enough money," she told Marguerite.
But over time Fantine became exhausted. The slight cough she had grew worse. Sometimes she said to Marguerite, "Just feel how hot my hands are."
One day the Thenardiers wrote to Fantine and said that Cosette didn’t have any winter clothes. They said that Fantine must send at least ten francs for a wool skirt. All day Fantine worried about what to do. That evening she went to the barbershop.
"What beautiful hair!" said the barber when Fantine removed the combs from her head. Her hair hung down to her waist.
"How much will you give me for it? I understand there’s a demand for hair for wigs."
"Ten francs."
"Then cut it all off," she said quickly before she could change her mind.
Fantine bought a knit skirt and sent it to the Thenardiers. They were furious. They had wanted the money, not the skirt, so they gave the skirt to Eponine. Cosette still shivered, but Fantine was happy.
"My child is no longer cold," she told Marguerite. "I have clothed her with my hair." She didn’t know the truth.
Fantine put on a little round cap to conceal her short hair and somehow still managed to look pretty. But she felt sad that she had had to cut her beautiful hair. Every time she passed the factory, she resented Mayor Madeleine and blamed him for her troubles.
Soon she received another letter from the Thenardiers. Cosette was seriously ill with a fever and her medicine was expensive.
"Unless you send us forty francs," wrote Monsieur Thenardier, "your daughter will surely die."
"Forty francs! Where will I get that kind of money?" Fantine asked Marguerite.
But that very day, she noticed a traveling dentist in the square, and he noticed her beautiful white teeth.
"If you will sell me two of your front teeth," said the dentist, "I’ll pay you well. Your teeth will make wonderful false teeth."
"Don’t be ridiculous!" said Fantine.
"How much money did he offer?" asked Marguerite, when Fantine told her the story.
"Twenty francs per tooth."
"That’s forty francs," said Marguerite.
"I know," said Fantine quietly. "Have you ever heard of this kind of fever?" She showed the Thenardiers’ letter to Marguerite. "Does it attack children? Do people really die from it?"
"Yes, people die, especially children," said Marguerite.
Later that night Fantine went in search of the dentist. She sent the forty francs to the Thenardiers right away.
Poor Fantine! She didn’t know that Cosette wasn’t really sick. It was all a trick for the Thenardiers to get more money from her. Fantine coughed while she sewed the soldiers’ shirts. She was coughing when she read Monsieur Thenardier’s next letter.
"Cosette is still recovering," he wrote. "I must have one hundred francs immediately or I will have to turn her out into the street."
"What will I do?" cried Fantine.