"And what will you do, Mademoiselle?" She spat out bitterly. "Will you faint and show them that you cannot stand it? Well, shall I tell you what I have done? I ran away, a long time ago, Madame. And they killed me. They held me on my knees and they shot me in my head and they brought me back to fight some more. Would you let them do that? Would you dare? I do not think you would dare at all."

She shook her head, mimicking Cosette;s defensive gesture. "Perhaps for you, things can change. You got out of the gutter, did you not? You pretend to be a lady - and do not worry, I will not give away your secret... for now. But for me... we were always bad, no? I suppose it has caught up with my family now. Things, for me, only change when they get worse. There will be no 'better' for me."