Jean Valjean was of that thoughtful but not gloomy disposition
which constitutes the peculiarity of affectionate natures.
On the whole, however, there was something decidedly sluggish
and insignificant about Jean Valjean in appearance, at least.
He had lost his father and mother at a very early age. His mother
had died of a milk fever, which had not been properly attended to.
His father, a tree-pruner, like himself, had been killed by a fall
from a tree. All that remained to Jean Valjean was a sister older
than himself,--a widow with seven children, boys and girls.
This sister had brought up Jean Valjean, and so long as she had a
husband she lodged and fed her young brother.

The husband died. The eldest of the seven children was eight
years old. The youngest, one.

Jean Valjean had just attained his twenty-fifth year. He took
the father's place, and, in his turn, supported the sister who had
brought him up. This was done simply as a duty and even a little
churlishly on the part of Jean Valjean. Thus his youth had been spent
in rude and ill-paid toil. He had never known a "kind woman friend"
in his native parts. He had not had the time to fall in love.

He returned at night weary, and ate his broth without uttering a word.
His sister, mother Jeanne, often took the best part of his repast
from his bowl while he was eating,--a bit of meat, a slice of bacon,
the heart of the cabbage,--to give to one of her children.
As he went on eating, with his head bent over the table and almost
into his soup, his long hair falling about his bowl and concealing
his eyes, he had the air of perceiving nothing and allowing it.
There was at Faverolles, not far from the Valjean thatched cottage,