"Oh, Father!" she sobs. "You have never been anything else."

He must be asking God. He can't be asking them directly; that would be absurd. He closed himself away from their lives, he shut himself away from her, that's all -- but for God, the question's always valid, because all humans are sinners, but the answer's also always true. God is forgiveness, for those who repent their sin, and her father is so good.

And didn't she ask God that same joyful disbelieving question in her heart just a little while ago, in spite of all her fear, when her father called her Cosette and tu and held out his hand to her once more?