"One cannot help owning that Julien has a singular aptitude for affairs, had boldness, and is possibly even brilliant," said the marquis to himself ... "but I detect at the root of his character a certain element which alarms me.
He produces the same impression upon everyone, consequently there must be something real in it," and the more difficult this reality was to seize hold of, the more it alarmed the imaginative mind of the old marquis.
"My daughter expressed the same point very neatly the other day (in a suppressed letter).
"Julien has not joined any salon or any coterie.
He has nothing to support himself against me, and has absolutely no resource if I abandon him. Now is that ignorance of the actual state of society?
I have said to him two or three times, the only real and profitable candidature is the candidature of the salons.
"No, he has not the adroit, cunning genius of an attorney who never loses a minute or an opportunity. He is very far from being a character like Louis XL.
On the other hand, I have seen him quote the most ungenerous maxims ... it is beyond me.
Can it be that he simply repeats these maxims in order to use them as a dam against his passions?
"However, one thing comes to the surface; he cannot bear contempt, that's my hold on him.
"He has not, it is true, the religious reverence for high birth. He does not instinctively respect us....
That is wrong; but after all, the only things which are supposed to make the soul of a seminary student impatient are lack of enjoyment and lack of money.
He is quite different, and cannot stand contempt at any price."
Pressed as he was by his daughter's letter, M. de la Mole realised the necessity for making up his mind.
"After all, the great question is this:—Did Julien's audacity go to the point of setting out to make advances to my daughter because he knows I love her more than anything else in the world, and because I have an income of a hundred thousand crowns?"
Mathilde protests to the contrary.... "No, monsieur Julien, that is a point on which I am not going to be under any illusion.
"Is it really a case of spontaneous and authentic love? or is it just a vulgar desire to raise himself to a fine position?
Mathilde is far-seeing; she appreciated from the first that this suspicion might ruin him with me—hence that confession of hers. It was she who took upon herself to love him the first.
"The idea of a girl of so proud a character so far forgetting herself as to make physical advances!
To think of pressing his arm in the garden in the evening! How horrible!
As though there were not a hundred other less unseemly ways of notifying him that he was the object of her favour.
"Qui s'excuse s'accuse; I distrust Mathilde."
The marquis's reasoning was more conclusive to-day than it was usually.
Nevertheless, force of habit prevailed, and he resolved to gain time by writing to his daughter, for a correspondence was being carried on between one wing of the hotel and the other.
M. de la Mole did not dare to discuss matters with Mathilde and to see her face to face.
He was frightened of clinching the whole matter by yielding suddenly.
"Mind you commit no new acts of madness; here is a commission of lieutenant of Hussars for M. the chevalier, Julien Sorel de la Vernaye.
You see what I am doing for him.
Do not irritate me. Do not question me.
Let him leave within twenty-four hours and present himself at Strasbourg where his regiment is.
Here is an order on my banker. Obey me."
Mathilde's love and joy were unlimited. She wished to profit by her victory and immediately replied.
"If M. de la Vernaye knew all that you are good enough to do for him, he would be overwhelmed with gratitude and be at your feet.
But amidst all this generosity, my father has forgotten me; your daughter's honour is in peril.
An indiscretion may produce an everlasting blot which an income of twenty thousand crowns could not put right.
I will only send the commission to M. de la Vernaye if you give me your word that my marriage will be publicly celebrated at Villequier in the course of next month.
Shortly after that period, which I entreat you not to prolong, your daughter will only be able to appear in public under the name of Madame de la Vernaye.
How I thank you, dear papa, for having saved me from the name of Sorel, etc., etc."
The reply was unexpected:
"Obey or I retract everything.
Tremble, you imprudent young girl.
I do not yet know what your Julien is, and you yourself know less than I.
Let him leave for Strasbourg, and try to act straightly.
I will notify him from here of my wishes within a fortnight."
Mathilde was astonished by this firm answer.
I do not know Julien. These words threw her into a reverie which soon finished in the most fascinating suppositions; but she believed in their truth.
My Julien's intellect is not clothed in the petty mean uniform of the salons, and my father refuses to believe in his superiority by reason of the very fact which proves it.
All the same, if I do not obey this whim of his, I see the possibility of a public scene; a scandal would lower my position in society, and might render me less fascinating in Julien's eyes.
After the scandal ... ten years of poverty; and the only thing which can prevent marrying for merit becoming ridiculous is the most brilliant wealth.
If I live far away from my father, he is old and may forget me.... Norbert will marry some clever, charming woman; old Louis XIV. was seduced by the duchess of Burgundy.