I was notagreeable to her this morning, I did not
yield to her impulse forconversation.
It is all prescribed for them:sublime
resignation.
I can point out toyou at this ball ten men,
perhaps, who will be damned as murderers. Oh,if only he could find one who was at
all amusing! At this point, the Contes carriage, which was taking Julien
home,stopped at the Hotel de La Mole. In a moment of pride, he toldher frankly what
he was thinking. At my age, ayoung girl, beautiful, clever, where can she find
sensations, if notin love? The ideas that I had I formedof Paris prevented me from
appreciating that sublime woman. A sere andhaughty vanity, all the refinements of
self-esteem and nothing more.
They are perfect, too perfectperhaps; in short,
they bore me. Which of them ever dreamsof doing anything out of the
common?
How can I tell what peoplefeel in the middle of a
great action?
To have given away, even to men without merit, all
thecommands in the army, all the Crosses? Then that is why twice, during the dinner,
Mademoiselle de La Moleaddressed her brother as Annibal. What is the use of a love
that makes one yawn?
I was notagreeable to her this morning, I did not
yield to her impulse forconversation.
Then that is why twice, during the dinner,
Mademoiselle de La Moleaddressed her brother as Annibal.
The poor man is really nothing worse than an
anachronism. And Boniface de La Mole was its hero, he said to her. Often something
she said jarred on the refined nerves of herhighly polished friends.
It was always the most profound, the mostmelancholy
passion. He would have hanged awhole town to obtain it.
To have given away, even to men without merit, all
thecommands in the army, all the Crosses? This bold and indiscreet question, cutting
Julien to the quick,revived all his passion. It is truethat Danton had an enormous
disadvantage in the eyes of beauty: he wasextremely ugly. Often something she said
jarred on the refined nerves of herhighly polished friends. In time she becamedeadly
to wounded vanity. Mademoiselle de LaMole remarked this with a feeling of
bitterness. The ideas that I had I formedof Paris prevented me from appreciating
that sublime woman.
Julien waited for a moment, bowing slightly from
the waist and with anarrogantly humble air. This plan became Juliens sole
occupation; he could no longer give athought to anything else.
But imprudence was what Mathilde enjoyedin her
correspondence.
Presentlyall the rest of the country dance became a
pure formality. The most precious thing she has: her reputation, the possibility of
esteem for her entire life. She was amazed at his pride; she admired the cunning of
thislittle plebeian.