Les Misérables, Book 4: Help from Below May Turn Out to Be Help from Above, Chapter 2 summary

What happens

1. Hungry Gavroche approaches Mabeuf’s garden for apples but stops to overhear Mother Plutarque describe their debts and dwindling supplies.
2. Gavroche settles beneath the hedge without taking food and watches Montparnasse follow an elderly stranger.
3. Montparnasse attacks the stranger, who quickly pins him down and questions his refusal to work.
4. The stranger describes the exhausting misery of criminal life, gives Montparnasse his purse, and walks away.
5. Gavroche secretly takes the purse from Montparnasse and tosses it over the hedge to Mabeuf.
6. Mabeuf discovers coins inside and consults Mother Plutarque, who says the money comes from heaven.

In this chapter

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