"My accent? I do not have an accent." She laughed. "Or perhaps, yes. I do not speak French how she ought to be spoken. Now you listen to Marius, or Enjolras or his friend, or even that Cosette, for she has learned how to speak since she left the inn, and they speak proper French. Me, I speak where I am from; I speak the gutter."

She shuffled closer to him, apparently uncaring if her little nest got mussed up. And then she leaned on him, taking care not to touch his broken hand.

"I think you have a funny accent. And Howard. But so many people here sound the same to me."