Read Online The Red and the Black by Stendhal - Free Book Online Page B

dear?'
    Julien turned round in a flash, and, struck by the gracious look in M me de Rênal's eyes, forgot some of his shyness. Soon, astonished at her
beauty, he forgot everything, even what he was there for. M me de Rênal had repeated her question.
    'I've come to be tutor here, madam,' he told her at last, thoroughly
ashamed of the tears he was doing his best to wipe away.
    M me de Rênal was struck speechless. They were standing very close
together, looking at each other. Julien had never been spoken to
gently by a person so well dressed--particularly a woman with such a
dazzling complexion. M me de Rênal gazed
    -29-

at the big teardrops poised on the young peasant's cheeks, which had
now turned from pale to deep crimson. She soon began to laugh with the
uncontrollable mirth of a girl; she was laughing at herself, unable
to take in the full extent of her good fortune. Was it possible? was
this the tutor she had imagined as an unkempt, shabby priest who would
come to scold and cane her children?
    'Can it be, sir,' she said to him at last, 'that you know Latin?'
    The term sir so astonished Julien that he took a moment to reflect.
    'Yes, madam,' he said shyly.
    M me de Rênal was so happy that she plucked up the courage to say to
Julien: 'You won't scold the poor children too much, will you?'
    'Me, scold them?' said Julien in surprise. 'Why should I?'
    'You will be sure, sir, won't you,' she added after a short pause, in
a voice which grew more and more emotional by the moment, 'to be kind
to them. Do you promise me you will?'
    To hear himself addressed again as sir in all seriousness, and by so
well dressed a lady, was far beyond anything Julien had anticipated.
Whenever he had built castles in the air in his youth, he had always
told himself that no real lady would ever deign to speak to him until
he had a fine uniform. M me de Rênal, for her part, was
completely beguiled by Julien's exquisite complexion, his large dark
eyes and his lovely hair, which was curlier than usual because he had
just cooled himself off by dipping his head in the trough under the
public drinking fountain. To her great delight, she detected the shy
look of a young girl in this fateful tutor whose sternness and
rebarbative appearance she had so dreaded on her children's account.
For a temperament as quiet as M me de Rênal's, the mismatch
between her fears and what she now saw was a major upheaval. She
eventually recovered from her surprise, and was astonished to find
herself on her own doorstep with this young man almost in his
shirtsleeves, and standing so close to him too.
    'Shall we go in, sir?' she said to him in some embarrassment.
    In all her life Mme de Rênal had not been so deeply moved
    -30-

by a wholly pleasurable sensation; never had so charming an
apparition come as a sequel to such alarming fears. So these lovely
children of hers, the objects of her tender care, wouldn't fall into
the hands of a dirty, ill-tempered priest. As soon as she was inside
the hall she turned to face Julien who was timidly following her. His
look of astonishment at the sight of such a fine house was a further
source of charm to M me de Rênal. She couldn't believe her eyes; it seemed to her that the tutor would surely be wearing a black suit.
    'But is it true, sir,' she asked him with the same hesitation and in
mortal dread of being wrong, so great was the happiness her
supposition gave her, 'that you really know Latin?'
    These words wounded Julien's pride and broke the spell he had been living under for the past quarter of an hour.
    'Yes, madam,' he replied, endeavouring to muster a chilly look, 'I
know Latin as well as Father Chélan does, and he's sometimes even good
enough to say better.'
    M me de Rênal thought Julien had a very fierce look on his face; he had
stopped some feet away from her. She went up to him and said quietly:
'You won't give my children the cane, will you, not the first few
days, even if