Agreed on those who say it wasn't a sexual thing, but that Cosette replaced all those other women that should have been in his life--mother, wife, daughter. The 1935 movie isn't always on the money, but it has a very subtle scene that touches on this, and it's conveyed with no more than
Frederic March's facial expression. In the words of Arlene C. Harris, author of the LM-themed novel ...