There were several men there, among whom Julien recognised with an inexpressible pleasure the young bishop of Agde who had deigned to speak to him some months before at the ceremony of Bray-le-Haut.
This young prelate was doubtless frightened by the tender look which the timidity of Julien fixed on him, and did not bother to recognise "the provincial."
The men assembled in this salon seemed to Julien to have a certain element of gloom and constraint. Conversation takes place in a low voice in Paris and little details are not exaggerated.
A handsome young man with moustaches, came in about half-past six. He was very pale, and had a very small head.
"You always keep us waiting" said the marquise, as he kissed her hand.
Julien realised that it was the Count de la Mole.
From the very first he thought he was charming.
"Is it possible," he said to himself "that this is the man whose offensive jests are going to drive me out of the house."
As the result of scrutinising count Norbert, Julien noticed that he was in boots and spurs.
"And I have got to be in shoes just like an inferior apparently."
They sat down at table, Julien heard the marquise raising her voice a little and saying something severe.
Almost simultaneously he noticed an extremely blonde and very well developed young person who had just sat down opposite him.
Nevertheless she made no appeal to him.
Looking at her attentively he thought that he had never seen such beautiful eyes, although they betokened a great coldness of soul.
Subsequently Julien thought that, though they looked bored and sceptical, they were conscious of the duty of being impressive.
"Madame de Renal of course had very fine eyes" he said to himself, "she used to be universally complimented on them, but they had nothing in common with these."
Julien did not know enough of society to appreciate that it was the fire of repartee which from time to time gave their brilliancy to the eyes of Mademoiselle Mathilde (for that was the name he heard her called by).
When Madame de Renal's eyes became animated, it was with the fire of passion, or as the result of a generous indignation on hearing of some evil deed.
Towards the end of the meal Julien found a word to express Mademoiselle de la Mole's type of beauty.
Her eyes are scintillating, he said to himself.
Apart from her eyes she was cruelly like her mother, whom he liked less and less, and he ceased looking at her.
By way of compensation he thought Count Norbert admirable in every respect.
Julien was so fascinated that the idea never occurred to him of being jealous, and hating him because he was richer and of nobler birth than he was himself.
Julien thought that the marquis looked bored.
About the second course he said to his son:
"Norbert, I ask all your good offices for M. Julien Sorel, whom I have just taken into my staff and of whom I hope to make a man si cella se peut."
"He is my secretary," said the marquis to his neighbour, "and he spells cela with two ll's."
Everybody looked at Julien, who bowed to Norbert in a manner that was slightly too marked, but speaking generally they were satisfied with his expression.
The marquis must have spoken about the kind of education which Julien had received for one of the guests tackled him on Horace.
"It was just by talking about Horace that I succeeded with the bishop of Besancon," said Julien to himself.
Apparently that is the only author they know.
From that instant he was master of himself.
This transition was rendered easy because he had just decided that he would never look upon Madamoiselle de la Mole as a woman after his own taste.
Since the seminary he had the lowest opinion of men, and was not to be easily intimidated by them.
He would have enjoyed all his self-possession if the dining-room had been furnished with less magnificence.
It was, as a matter of fact, two mirrors each eight feet high in which he would look from time to time at the man who was speaking to him about Horace, which continued to impress him.
His phrases were not too long for a provincial, he had fine eyes whose brilliancy was doubled by his quavering timidity, or by his happy bashfulness when he had given a good answer. They found him pleasant.
This kind of examination gave a little interest to a solemn dinner.
The marquis signed to Julien's questioner to press him sharply.
"Can he possibly know something?" he thought.
Julien answered and thought out new ideas. He lost sufficient of his nervousness, not indeed to exhibit any wit, for that is impossible for any one ignorant of the special language which is used in Paris, but to show himself possessed of ideas which, though presented out of place and ungracefully, were yet original. They saw that he knew Latin perfectly.
Julien's adversary was a member of the Academy Inscriptions who chanced to know Latin.
He found Julien a very good humanist, was not frightened of making him feel uncomfortable, and really tried to embarrass him.
In the heat of the controversy Julien eventually forgot the magnificent furniture of the dining-room. He managed to expound theories concerning the Latin poets which his questioner had never read of anywhere.
Like an honest man, he gave the young secretary all due credit for them.
As luck would have it, they started a discussion on the question of whether Horace was poor or rich, a good humoured and careless voluptuary who made verses to amuse himself, like Chapelle the friend of Moliere and de la Fontaine, or a poor devil of a poet laureate who wrote odes for the king's birthday like Southey, the accuser of Lord Byron.
They talked about the state of society under Augustus and under George IV. At both periods the aristocracy was all-powerful, but, while at Rome it was despoiled of its power by Maecenas who was only a simple knight, it had in England reduced George IV practically to the position of a Venetian doge.
This discussion seemed to lift the marquis out of that state of bored torpor in which he had been plunged at the beginning of the dinner.
Julien found meaningless such modern names as Southey, Lord Byron, and George IV, which he now heard pronounced for the first time.
But every one noticed that whenever the conversation dealt with events that had taken place in Rome and about which knowledge could be obtained by a perusal of the works of Horace, Martial or Tacitus, etc., he showed an indisputable superiority.