Eponine's seen Nadine, of course. She's watched enviously from her corner of the cell as she's paid her visits to Flagg, and given him bits of food, meat and pastries and little biscuits. Eponine's been lucky: Flagg's been all too happy to share with her, but the physical food doesn't feed her longing for someone to talk to.
In the gloom of the dungeons, where everyone is dirty and irritable, Nadine looks almost ethereal, like a faerie or an angel or something else that has no right amongst the thieves and murderers that surely haunt the cells. Eponine hungers for her attention, attracted, as a magpie to something shiny, to Nadine's beauty. But Nadine's never noticed her, and why should she pay attention to the little goblin in the corner of Flagg's cage?

But today's different. Perhaps she's noticed Eponine's hair ribbon, recognising the tattered ribbon as the one she gave Susan? Or perhaps Eponine glanced up just at the right time? But today's different because Nadine is looking past Flagg and calling to the young woman sat hunched on her bed.

Eponine's face lights up as she stumbles forward to the bars.
"Me, Mam'zelle? You will say hello to me? Really?"
She's unsure of herself and she hates herself for it. She shifts from foot to foot, her nervous energy fizzing from her.
"I didn't think you even saw me sat on the bed when you came to speak with the M'sieur just there. But you did, oh you did. Even just for a minute, it is so lovely, you know?"