The line of open-air booths starting at the church, extended, as the reader will remember, as far as the hostelry of the Thenardiers. These booths were all illuminated, because the citizens would soon pass on their way to the midnight mass, with candles burning in paper funnels, which, as the schoolmaster, then seated at the table at the Thenardiers' observed, produced "a magical effect." In compensation, not a star was visible in the sky.
The last of these stalls, established precisely opposite the Thenardiers' door, was a toy-shop all glittering with tinsel, glass, and magnificent objects of tin. In the first row, and far forwards, the merchant had placed on a background of white napkins, an immense doll, nearly two feet high, who was dressed in a robe of pink crepe, with gold wheat-ears on her head, which had real hair and enamel eyes. All that day, this marvel had been displayed to the wonderment of all passers-by under ten years of age, without a mother being found in Montfermeil sufficiently rich or sufficiently extravagant to give it to her child. Eponine and Azelma had passed hours in contemplating it, and Cosette herself had ventured to cast a glance at it, on the sly, it is true.
At the moment when Cosette emerged, bucket in hand, melancholy and overcome as she was, she could not refrain from lifting her eyes to that wonderful doll, towards the lady, as she called it. The poor child paused in amazement. She had not yet beheld that doll close to. The whole shop seemed a palace to her: the doll was not a doll; it was a vision. It was joy, splendor, riches, happiness, which appeared in a sort of chimerical halo to that unhappy little being so profoundly engulfed in gloomy and chilly misery. With the sad and innocent sagacity of childhood, Cosette measured the abyss which separated her from that doll. She said to herself that one must be a queen, or at least a princess, to have a "thing" like that. She gazed at that beautiful pink dress, that beautiful smooth hair, and she thought, "How happy that doll must be!" She could not take her eyes from that fantastic stall. The more she looked, the more dazzled she grew. She thought she was gazing at paradise. There were other dolls behind the large one, which seemed to her to be fairies and genii. The merchant, who was pacing back and forth in front of his shop, produced on her somewhat the effect of being the Eternal Father.
In this adoration she forgot everything, even the errand with which she was charged.
All at once the Thenardier's coarse voice recalled her to reality: "What, you silly jade! you have not gone? Wait! I'll give it to you! I want to know what you are doing there! Get along, you little monster!"
The Thenardier had cast a glance into the street, and had caught sight of Cosette in her ecstasy.
Cosette fled, dragging her pail, and taking the longest strides of which she was capable.
那一排敞篷商店，我们记得，是从礼拜堂一直延展到德纳第客店门前的。由于有钱的人不久就要路过那一带去参加夜半弥撒，所以那些商店都已燃起蜡烛，烛的外面也都加上漏斗形的纸罩，当时有个孟费郿小学的老师正在德纳第店里喝酒，他说那种烛光颇有“魅力”，同时，天上却不见一颗星。
最后的一个摊子恰恰对着德纳第的大门，那是个玩具铺，摆满了晶莹耀眼的金银首饰、玻璃器皿、白铁玩具。那商人在第一排的最前面，在一块洁白的大手巾前陈列着一个大娃娃，二尺来高，穿件粉红绉纱袍，头上围着金穗子，有着真头发、珐琅眼睛。这宝物在那里陈列了一整天，十岁以下的过路人见了没有不爱的，但是在孟费郿就没有一个母亲有那么多钱，或是说有那种挥霍的习惯，肯买来送给孩子。爱潘妮和阿兹玛在那里瞻仰了好几个钟头，至于珂赛特，的确，只敢偷偷地望一两眼。
珂赛特拿着水桶出门时，尽管她是那样忧郁，那样颓丧，却仍不能不抬起眼睛去望那非凡的娃娃，望那“娘娘”，照她的说法。那可怜的孩子立在那儿呆住了。她还不曾走到近处去看过那娃娃。对她来说那整个商店就象是座宫殿，那娃娃也不是玩偶，而是一种幻象。那可怜的小姐，一直深深地沉陷在那种悲惨冷酷的贫寒生活里，现在她见到的，在她的幻想中，自然一齐成为欢乐、光辉、荣华、幸福出现了。珂赛特用她那天真悲愁的智慧去估计那道横亘在她和那玩偶间的深渊。她向她自己说，只有王后，至少也得是个公主，才能得到这样一样“东西”。她细细端详那件美丽的粉红袍，光滑的头发，她心里在想：“这娃娃，她该多么幸福呵！”她的眼睛离不了那家五光十色的店铺。她越看越眼花。她以为看见了天堂。在那大娃娃后面，还有许多小娃娃，她想那一定是一些仙女仙童了。她觉得在那摊子底里走来走去的那个商人有点象永生之父。
在那种仰慕当中，她忘了一切，连别人叫她做的事也忘了。猛然一下，德纳第大娘的粗暴声音把她拉回到现实中来：“怎么，蠢货，你还没有走！等着吧！等我来同你算账！我要问一声，她在那里干什么！小怪物，走！”
德纳第大娘向街上望了一眼，就望见珂赛特正在出神。
珂赛特连忙提着水桶，放开脚步溜走了。