The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of 1830Stendhal
General
The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of 1830
Stendhal
Ambition -- Fiction; Bildungsromans; Church and state -- Fiction; France -- Fiction; Young men -- France -- Fiction
"That is just what rich people are," he said to himself--"they snub you
and then they think they can make up for everything by a few monkey
tricks."
Madame de Rênal's heart was too full, and at the same time too
innocent, for her not too tell her husband, in spite of her resolutions
not to do so, about the offer she had made to Julien, and the manner in
which she had been rebuffed.
"How on earth," answered M. de Rênal, keenly piqued, "could you put
up with a refusal on the part of a servant,"--and, when Madame de
Rênal protested against the word "Servant," "I am using, madam, the
words of the late Prince of Condé, when he presented his Chamberlains
to his new wife. 'All these people' he said 'are servants.' I have
also read you this passage from the Memoirs of Besenval, a book which
is indispensable on all questions of etiquette. 'Every person, not
a gentleman, who lives in your house and receives a salary is your
servant.' I'll go and say a few words to M. Julien and give him a
hundred francs."
"Oh, my dear," said Madame De Rênal trembling, "I hope you won't do it
before the servants!"
"Yes, they might be jealous and rightly so," said her husband as he
took his leave, thinking of the greatness of the sum.
Madame de Rênal fell on a chair almost fainting in her anguish. He is
going to humiliate Julien, and it is my fault! She felt an abhorrence
for her husband and hid her face in her hands. She resolved that
henceforth she would never make any more confidences.
When she saw Julien again she was trembling all over. Her chest was so
cramped that she could not succeed in pronouncing a single word. In her
embarrassment she took his hands and pressed them.
"Well, my friend," she said to him at last, "are you satisfied with my
husband?"
"How could I be otherwise," answered Julien, with a bitter smile, "he
has given me a hundred francs."
Madame de Rênal looked at him doubtfully.
"Give me your arm," she said at last, with a courageous intonation that
Julien had not heard before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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