# The House with a Secret explained — Les Misérables > Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. ## What happens Jean Valjean, having left the convent of the Petit-Picpus with Cosette, takes up residence in a secluded house on Rue Plumet under the alias M. Fauchelevent. He hires the house, which was originally built for a chief justice with secret passages, and lives there with Cosette and an elderly maid named Toussaint. Valjean reflects on his decision to leave the convent, driven by the fear that keeping Cosette cloistered would rob her of her right to experience life. He also rents two other apartments in Paris to avoid detection and ensure a quick escape if needed. ## Themes in this chapter ### Redemption and Transformation Jean Valjean's decision to leave the convent reflects his ongoing moral transformation, as he prioritizes Cosette's right to experience life over his own security and happiness. ### Suffering and Sacrifice Valjean sacrifices his own peace and safety by leaving the convent, taking on the risk of being recognized, to ensure Cosette's freedom and future. ### The Human Condition and Fate Valjean's reflections on fate and the right of a child to know life before renouncing it explore the tension between protection and the natural course of human experience. ## Character check-ins ### Jean Valjean Hires the house on Rue Plumet under the name M. Fauchelevent, having left the convent with Cosette. He reflects on his decision to leave, fearing he was stealing Cosette's happiness by keeping her in the convent. ### Cosette Lives with Jean Valjean in the Rue Plumet house. She is puzzled by the valise Valjean carries, which has an odor of embalming, and jokingly calls it his 'inseparable.' ### Toussaint Elderly maidservant saved by Jean Valjean from the hospital and wretchedness. She lives with them in the Rue Plumet house. ### Father Fauchelevent Mentioned as having died, which provided Jean Valjean with the opportunity to leave the convent. ## Key lines > He saw Cosette every day, he felt paternity spring up and develop within him more and more, he brooded over the soul of that child, he said to himself that she was his, that nothing could take her from him, that this would last indefinitely, that she would certainly become a nun, being thereto gently incited every day, that thus the convent was henceforth the universe for her as it was for him, that he should grow old there, and that she would grow up there, that she would grow old there, and that he should die there; that, in short, delightful hope, no separation was possible. Jean Valjean cherished the daily presence of Cosette, feeling his fatherly love deepen and believing she was irrevocably his, destined to become a nun and remain with him forever in the convent, a comforting vision of eternal togetherness. _Valjean's internal conflict about keeping Cosette in the convent._ > He said to himself, that this child had a right to know life before renouncing it, that to deprive her in advance, and in some sort without consulting her, of all joys, under the pretext of saving her from all trials, to take advantage of her ignorance of her isolation, in order to make an artificial vocation germinate in her, was to rob a human creature of its nature and to lie to God. Valjean realized that Cosette deserved to experience life before choosing to give it up, and that forcing her into a religious vocation without her consent would be a theft of her humanity and a deception before God. _Valjean's moral reasoning for leaving the convent._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/i-the-house-with-a-secret - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters