Part 1 Chapter 17
The Principal DeputyO! how this spring of love resembleth The uncertain glory of anApril day, Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, And byand by a cloud takes all away!
The Two Gentlemen of VeronaOne evening as the sun set, sitting by his mistress, at the end of theorchard, safe from disturbance, he was deep in thought. 'Will such delicious moments,' he was wondering, 'last for ever?' His thoughts were absorbed in the difficulty of adopting a profession, he was deploring thisgreat and distressing problem which puts an end to boyhood and spoilsthe opening years of manhood when one has no money.
'Ah!' he cried, 'Napoleon was indeed the man sent by God to help theyouth of France! Who is to take his place? What will the poor wretchesdo without him, even those who are richer than I, who have just the fewcrowns needed to procure them a good education, and not enoughmoney to purchase a man at twenty and launch themselves in a career!
Whatever happens,' he added with deep sigh, 'that fatal memory will forever prevent us from being happy!'
He saw Madame de Renal frown suddenly; she assumed a cold, disdainful air; this line of thought seemed to her worthy of a servant.
Brought up in the idea that she was extremely rich, it seemed to her athing to be taken for granted that Julien was also. She loved him a thousand times more than life itself, and money to her meant nothing.
Julien was far from guessing what was in her mind. This frownbrought him back to earth. He had presence of mind enough to arrangehis sentence and to make it plain to the noble lady, seated so close besidehim on the bank of verdure, that the words he had just uttered weresome that he had heard during his expedition to his friend the timbermerchant. This was the reasoning of the impious.
'Very well! Don't mix any more with such people,' said Madame deRenal, still preserving a trace of that glacial air which had suddenlytaken the place of an expression of the tenderest affection.
This frown, or rather his remorse for his imprudence, was the firstcheck administered to the illusion that was bearing Julien away. He saidto himself: 'She is good and kind, her feeling for me is strong, but she hasbeen brought up in the enemy's camp. They are bound to be speciallyafraid of that class of men of spirit who, after a good education, have notenough money to enter upon a career. What would become of thesenobles, if it were granted us to fight them with equal weapons? Myself,for instance, as Mayor of Verrieres, well intentioned, honest as M. deRenal is at heart, how I should deal with the vicar, M. Valenod and alltheir rascalities! How justice should triumph in Verrieres. It is not theirtalents that would prove an obstacle. They are endlessly feeling theirway.'
Julien's happiness was, that day, on the point of becoming permanent.
What our hero lacked was the courage to be sincere. He needed the courage to give battle, but on the spot; Madame de Renal had been surprisedby his speech, because the men whom she was in the habit of meetingwere always saying that the return of Robespierre was made possible especially by these young men of the lower orders, who had been too welleducated. Madame de Renal's cold manner persisted for some time, andseemed to Julien to be marked. This was because the fear of having saidto him indirectly something unpleasant followed her repugnance at hisunfortunate speech. This distress was clearly shown on her pure countenance; so simple when she was happy and away from bores.
Julien no longer dared give himself up freely to his dreams. More calmand less amorous, he decided that it was imprudent in him to go to Madame de Renal in her room. It would be better if she came to him; if aservant saw her moving about the house, there would be a score of possible reasons to account for her action.
But this arrangement also had its drawbacks. Julien had received fromFouque certain books for which he, as a student of divinity, could neverhave asked a bookseller. He ventured to open them only at night. Oftenhe would have been just as well pleased not to be interrupted by an assignation, the tension of waiting for which, even before the little scene inthe orchard, would have left him incapable of reading.
He was indebted to Madame de Renal for an entirely new understanding of the books he read. He had ventured to ply her with questions as to all sorts of little things ignorance of which seriously handicaps the intelligence of a young man born outside the ranks of society, whatever natural genius one may choose to attribute to him.
This education in love, given by an extremely ignorant woman, was ablessing. Julien was at once enabled to see society as it is today. His mindwas not perplexed by accounts of what it was in the past, two thousandyears ago, or sixty years ago merely, in the days of Voltaire and LouisXV. To his unspeakable joy a cloud passed from before his eyes; he understood at last the things that were happening at Verrieres.
In the foreground appeared the highly complicated intrigues woven,for the last two years, round the Prefect at Besancon. They were supported by letters that came from Paris, and bore all the most illustrious signatures. It was a question of making M. de Moirod, the most bigotedman in the place, the Principal instead of the Second Deputy to the Mayor of Verrieres.
His rival was an extremely rich manufacturer, whom it was absolutelyessential to confine to the post of Second Deputy.
Julien at last understood the hints that he had overheard, when thecream of local society came to dine with M. de Renal. This privilegedclass was greatly taken up with this selection of a Principal Deputy, ofwhich the rest of the town and especially the Liberals did not even suspect the possibility. What gave it its importance was that, as everybodyknew, the eastern side of the main street of Verrieres must be movedback more than nine feet, for this street was now a royal highway.
Well, if M. de Moirod, who owned three houses that would have to bemoved back, succeeded in becoming Principal Deputy, and so Mayor inthe event of M. de Renal's being returned to Parliament, he would shuthis eyes, and it would be possible to make little, imperceptible repairs tothe houses that encroached on the public thoroughfare, as a result ofwhich they would be good for a hundred years. Despite the great pietyand admitted probity of M. de Moirod, it was certain that he could bemanaged, for he had a large family. Among the houses that would have tobe moved back, nine belonged to the very best people in Verrieres.
In Julien's eyes, this intrigue was far more important than the historyof the battle of Fontenoy, a name which he saw for the first time in one ofthe books that Fouque had sent him. Many things had astonished Julienduring the five years since he had begun to spend his evenings with thecure. But discretion and a humble spirit being the chief qualities required in a divinity student, it had always been impossible for him to ask anyquestions.
One day, Madame de Renal had given an order to her husband's valet,Julien's enemy.
'But, Ma'am, today is the last Friday of the month,' the man answeredher with a curious expression.
'Go,' said Madame de Renal.
'Well,' said Julien, 'he is going to that hay store, which used to be achurch, and was recently restored to the faith; but why? That is one ofthe mysteries which I have never been able to penetrate.'
'It is a most beneficial, but a very strange institution,' replied Madamede Renal. 'Women are not admitted; all that I know of it is that they alladdress one another as tu. For instance, this servant will find M. Valenodthere, and that conceited fool will not be in the least annoyed at hearinghimself called tu by Saint-Jean, and will answer him in the same tone. Ifyou really want to know what they do there, I can ask M. de Maugironand M. Valenod for details. We pay twenty francs for each servant sothat they do not cut our throats.'
The time flew. The memory of his mistress's charms distracted Julienfrom his black ambition. The necessity to refrain from speaking to her ofserious, reasonable matters, since they were on opposite sides, added,without his suspecting it, to the happiness that he owed to her and to thepower which she was acquiring over him.
At those moments when the presence of quick-eared children confinedthem to the language of cold reason, it was with a perfect docility thatJulien, gazing at her with eyes that burned with love, listened to her explanations of the world as it really was. Often, in the middle of an account of some clever piece of roguery, in connection with the laying outof a road, or of some astounding contract, Madame de Renal's mindwould suddenly wander to the point of delirium; Julien was obliged toscold her, she allowed herself to caress him in the same way as shecaressed her children. This was because there were days on which sheimagined that she loved him like a child of her own. Had she not to replyincessantly to his artless questions about a thousand simple matters ofwhich a child of good family is not ignorant at fifteen? A moment later,she was admiring him as her master. His intelligence positivelyfrightened her; she thought she could perceive more clearly every daythe future great man in this young cleric. She saw him as Pope, she sawhim as First Minister, like Richelieu.
'Shall I live long enough to see you in your glory?' she said to Julien;'there is a place waiting for a great man; the Monarchy, the Church needone; these gentlemen say so every day. If some Richelieu does not stemthe torrent of private judgment, all is lost.'