Hugo has repeatedly shown himself to be a master of using an unfolding conflict as an opportunity to reveal further truths about a character, their thinking, and their situation. This chapter is a shining example of that approach. As readers we’ve been thrust into the drama of Cosette’s larger predicament and are anxiously focused on the details of the immediate crisis - Cosette is out in the dark, headed to gather the water.
This chapter delays any questions of what will happen, but does it in a way that I find very gratifying. The only “water quest related” content the chapter has is at the very end where the mistress Thenardier catches Cosette daydreaming, calls her a slut (so harsh!) and threatens to come after her; all of which results in Cosette breaking free of her daydreaming and running frantically into the dark to fetch the water.
So what had Cosette so enthralled? A booth with a two foot tall doll for sale, lit by candle light and gorgeous in it’s construction and presentation. For Cosette, this seemed to be a thing fit for a princess, something she could never imagine someone like herself having access to. it becomes a proxy for heaven or for hope to young Cosette - the object of desire that one longs for but is completely out of reach. Here we get a glimps into young Cosette’s mind. The doll is “the lady” a perfect and utterly unattainable prize and all of the other dolls are fairies and angels, representatives of a world that Cosette is completely removed from. Here she sees that there are beautiful and delightful things that she will never have access to, and is aware to a greater degree of her place in the world. What will this inequity do to Cosette? How will it shape her? What kind of hurt and resentment will it create in her?
We are moved along before we can answer any of this, but it gives us a clear glimpse into the fact that Cosette was well aware that there was another life possible than the one she was living - but that life was completely and totally out of reach.