Pleasant company is nice! Cosette smiles a little, thinking about her friends, and Marius's, at a Christmas party of candlelight and food and laughter, and...

and...

and every name and face she can think of is here, really. Oh, there's her father, there's Marius's grandfather and aunt, but that's family, that's different; they all live under the same roof anyway.

"Have you --"

There's an idea trying to form at the edge of her thoughts, but she isn't sure what it is; she isn't sure if it's a good one, or if it will burst like a soap bubble, or prove itself to be entirely foolish after all.

"Have you never been to a nice Christmas party? One you liked?"