"A teacher, Ma'am?" Eponine looks up to meet Nadine's eyes. "Me, I've never been to school. My Pa taught me figures and that and my Ma taught me to read a bit, and I can write." She adds the last with shy pride.

"I might look the rat now, but I weren't always so. Except, there were no books and that. But I could have been a student if I'd've studied, you know? I'm not so stupid as I look." She sighs wistfully. Perhaps, had she been to school, life would have been different. Perhaps she wouldn't have ended up on the streets. Perhaps Marius would have loved her. But what's the point in perhapses?

"What's a cookie, Ma'am?" But she's already reaching through the bars for one.