It was at this time, while still only twenty years of age, that he met a young girl of eighteen with whom he fell rather tempestuously in love.  Her name was Adele Foucher, and she was the daughter of a clerk in the War Office.  When one is very young and also a poet, it takes very little to feed the flame of passion.  Victor Hugo was often a guest at the apartments of M. Foucher, where he was received by that gentleman and his family.  French etiquette, of course, forbade any direct communication between the visitor and Adele.  She was still a very young girl, and was supposed to take no share in the conversation.  Therefore, while the others talked, she sat demurely by the fireside and sewed.

Her dark eyes and abundant hair, her grace of manner, and the picture which she made as the firelight played about her, kindled a flame in the susceptible heart of Victor Hugo.  Though he could not speak to her, he at least could look at her; and, before long, his share in the conversation was very slight.  This was set down, at first, to his absent-mindedness; but looks can be as eloquent as spoken words.  Mme. Foucher, with a woman’s keen intelligence, noted the adoring gaze of Victor Hugo as he silently watched her daughter.  The young Adele herself was no less intuitive than her mother.  It was very well understood, in the course of a few months, that Victor Hugo was in love with Adele Foucher.

Her father and mother took counsel about the matter, and Hugo himself, in a burst of lyrical eloquence, confessed that he adored Adele and wished to marry her.  Her parents naturally objected.  The girl was but a child.  She had no dowry, nor had Victor Hugo any settled income.  They were not to think of marriage.  But when did a common-sense decision, such as this, ever separate a man and a woman who have felt the thrill of first love!  Victor Hugo was insistent.  With his supreme self-confidence, he declared that he was bound to be successful, and that in a very short time he would be illustrious.  Adele, on her side, created “an atmosphere” at home by weeping frequently, and by going about with hollow eyes and wistful looks.

The Foucher family removed from Paris to a country town.  Victor Hugo immediately followed them.  Fortunately for him, his poems had attracted the attention of Louis XVIII, who was flattered by some of the verses.  He sent Hugo five hundred francs for an ode, and soon afterward settled upon him a pension of a thousand francs.  Here at least was an income—­a very small one, to be sure, but still an income.  Perhaps Adele’s father was impressed not so much by the actual money as by the evidence of the royal favor.  At any rate, he withdrew his opposition, and the two young people were married in October, 1822—­both of them being under age, unformed, and immature.

Their story is another warning against too early marriage.  It is true that they lived together until Mme. Hugo’s death—­a married life of forty-six years—­yet their story presents phases which would have made this impossible had they not been French.