To-day, everything had a fascination for him.
Two games of billiards were in progress.
The waiters were crying out the scores. The players ran round the tables encumbered by spectators.
Clouds of tobacco smoke came from everybody's mouth, and enveloped them in a blue haze.
The high stature of these men, their rounded shoulders, their heavy gait, their enormous whiskers, the long tailed coats which covered them, everything combined to attract Julien's attention.
These noble children of the antique Bisontium only spoke at the top of their voice. They gave themselves terrible martial airs.
Julien stood still and admired them. He kept thinking of the immensity and magnificence of a great capital like Besancon.
He felt absolutely devoid of the requisite courage to ask one of those haughty looking gentlemen, who were crying out the billiard scores, for a cup of coffee.
But the young lady at the bar had noticed the charming face of this young civilian from the country, who had stopped three feet from the stove with his little parcel under his arm, and was looking at the fine white plaster bust of the king.
This young lady, a big Franc-comtoise, very well made, and dressed with the elegance suitable to the prestige of the cafe, had already said two or three times in a little voice not intended to be heard by any one except Julien,
"Monsieur, Monsieur."
Julien's eyes encountered big blue eyes full of tenderness, and saw that he was the person who was being spoken to.
He sharply approached the bar and the pretty girl, as though he had been marching towards the enemy.
In this great man?uvre the parcel fell.
What pity will not our provincial inspire in the young lycee scholars of Paris, who, at the early age of fifteen, know already how to enter a cafe with so distinguished an air?
But these children who have such style at fifteen turn commonplace at eighteen.
The impassioned timidity which is met with in the provinces, sometimes manages to master its own nervousness, and thus trains the will.
"I must tell her the truth," thought Julien, who was becoming courageous by dint of conquering his timidity as he approached this pretty girl, who deigned to address him.
"Madame, this is the first time in my life that I have come to Besancon.
I should like to have some bread and a cup of coffee in return for payment."
The young lady smiled a little, and then blushed. She feared the ironic attention and the jests of the billiard players might be turned against this pretty young man. He would be frightened and would not appear there again.
"Sit here near me," she said to him, showing him a marble table almost completely hidden by the enormous mahogany counter which extended into the hall.
The young lady leant over the counter, and had thus an opportunity of displaying a superb figure.
Julien noticed it. All his ideas changed.
The pretty young lady had just placed before him a cup, some sugar, and a little roll.
She hesitated to call a waiter for the coffee, as she realised that his arrival would put an end to her tete-a-tete with Julien.
Julien was pensively comparing this blonde and merry beauty with certain memories which would often thrill him.
The thought of the passion of which he had been the object, nearly freed him from all his timidity.
The pretty young woman had only one moment to save the situation. She read it in Julien's looks.
"This pipe smoke makes you cough; come and have breakfast to-morrow before eight o'clock in the morning.
I am practically alone then."
"What is your name?" said Julien, with the caressing smile of happy timidity.
"Amanda Binet."
"Will you allow me to send you within an hour's time a little parcel about as big as this?"
The beautiful Amanda reflected a little.
"I am watched.
What you ask may compromise me. All the same, I will write my address on a card, which you will put on your parcel. Send it boldly to me."
"My name is Julien Sorel," said the young man.
"I have neither relatives nor acquaintances at Besancon."
"Ah, I understand," she said joyfully.
"You come to study law."
"Alas, no," answered Julien, "I am being sent to the Seminary."
The most complete discouragement damped Amanda's features.
She called a waiter. She had courage now.
The waiter poured out some coffee for Julien without looking at him.
Amanda was receiving money at the counter.
Julien was proud of having dared to speak: a dispute was going on at one of the billiard tables.
The cries and the protests of the players resounded over the immense hall, and made a din which astonished Julien. Amanda was dreamy, and kept her eyes lowered.
"If you like, Mademoiselle," he said to her suddenly with assurance, "I will say that I am your cousin."
This little air of authority pleased Amanda.