"The suicide happens near the end. And the book is--you've seen it. It's long." Hugo lacked restraint in that regard, as in so many others. "Valjean won't learn of it until he reaches that part. At which point, he will have read information much more important to himself and his daughter than Javert's suicide."
"I suppose there's nothing we can do to save Javert's life, even if we would," Combeferre adds, looking down at his knees.
The man had been condemned to death on the barricade. He knows things that could still doom their comrades, even without the book. Still--to know of a man's impending suicide and do nothing to stop it, well. It sits ill with a physician.
But Combeferre cannot and would not imprison Javert, and Javert would never listen to a word Combeferre could say. Except perhaps to contradict it.
This thought makes Combeferre give a mordant almost-smile. "Though perhaps if we all told him we badly wanted him to commit suicide, he might refrain, simply to spite us."
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"I suppose there's nothing we can do to save Javert's life, even if we would," Combeferre adds, looking down at his knees.
The man had been condemned to death on the barricade. He knows things that could still doom their comrades, even without the book. Still--to know of a man's impending suicide and do nothing to stop it, well. It sits ill with a physician.
But Combeferre cannot and would not imprison Javert, and Javert would never listen to a word Combeferre could say. Except perhaps to contradict it.
This thought makes Combeferre give a mordant almost-smile. "Though perhaps if we all told him we badly wanted him to commit suicide, he might refrain, simply to spite us."