A Large Heart and a Small FortuneBut passion most dissembles, yet betrays, Even by its darkness; asthe blackest sky Foretells the heaviest tempest.
Don Juan, I. 73M. de Renal, who was visiting every room in the house, reappeared inthe children's room with the servants who brought back the palliasses refilled. The sudden entry of this man was the last straw to Julien.
Paler, more sombre than usual, he advanced towards him. M. de Renalstood still and looked at his servants.
'Sir,' Julien began, 'do you suppose that with any other tutor your children would have made the same progress that they have made with me?
If your answer is no,' he went on without giving M. de Renal time tospeak, 'how dare you presume to reproach me with neglecting them?'
M. de Renal, who had barely recovered from his alarm, concludedfrom the strange tone which he saw this young peasant adopt that hehad in his pocket some more attractive offer and was going to leave him.
Julien's anger increasing as he spoke:
'I can live without you, Sir,' he concluded.
'I am extremely sorry to see you so agitated,' replied M. de Renal,stammering a little. The servants were a few feet away, and were occupied in making the beds.
'That is not enough for me, Sir,' Julien went on, beside himself withrage; 'think of the abominable things you said to me, and in the presenceof ladies, too!'
M. de Renal was only too well aware of what Julien was asking, andconflicting passions did battle in his heart. It so happened that Julien,now really mad with rage, exclaimed: 'I know where to go, Sir, when Ileave your house.'
On hearing these words, M. de Renal had a vision of Julien establishedin M. Valenod's household.
'Very well, Sir,' he said at length with a sigh, and the air of a man calling in a surgeon to perform the most painful operation, 'I agree to yourrequest. From the day after tomorrow, which is the first of the month, Ishall give you fifty francs monthly.'
Julien wanted to laugh and remained speechless: his anger had completely vanished.
'I did not despise the animal enough,' he said to himself. 'This, nodoubt, is the most ample apology so base a nature is capable of making.'
The children, who had listened to this scene open-mouthed, ran to thegarden to tell their mother that M. Julien was in a great rage, but that hewas to have fifty francs a month.
Julien went after them from force of habit, without so much as a glanceat M. de Renal, whom he left in a state of intense annoyance.
'That's a hundred and sixty-eight francs,' the Mayor said to himself,'that M. Valenod has cost me. I must really say a few firm words to himabout his contract to supply the foundlings.'
A moment later, Julien again stood before him.
'I have a matter of conscience to discuss with M. Chelan. I have thehonour to inform you that I shall be absent for some hours.'
'Ah, my dear Julien,' said M. de Renal, laughing in the most insinceremanner, 'the whole day, if you wish, the whole of tomorrow, my worthyfriend. Take the gardener's horse to go to Verrieres.'
'There,' M. de Renal said to himself, 'he's going with an answer toValenod; he's given me no promise, but we must let the young hotheadcool down.'
Julien made a speedy escape and climbed up among the big woodsthrough which one can go from Vergy to Verrieres. He was in no hurryto reach M. Chelan's. So far from desiring to involve himself in a freshdisplay of hypocrisy, he needed time to see clearly into his own heart,and to give audience to the swarm of conflicting feelings that disturbedit.
'I have won a battle,' he said to himself as soon as he found himself inthe shelter of the woods and out of sight of anyone, 'I have really won abattle!'
The last word painted his whole position for him in glowing colours,and restored some degree of tranquillity to his heart.
'Here I am with a salary of fifty francs a month; M. de Renal must be ina fine fright. But of what?'
His meditation as to what could have frightened the prosperous andpowerful man against whom, an hour earlier, he had been seething withrage completely restored Julien's serenity. He was almost conscious, for amoment, of the exquisite beauty of the woods through which he waswalking. Enormous fragments of bare rock had in times past fallen intothe heart of the forest from the side of the mountain. Tall beeches rose almost as high as these rocks whose shadow provided a delicious coolnesswithin a few yards of places where the heat of the sun's rays would havemade it impossible to stop.
Julien paused for a breathing-space in the shadow of these great rocks,then went on climbing. Presently, by following a narrow path, barely visible and used only by goatherds, he found himself standing upon an immense rock, where he could be certain of his complete isolation from hisfellow-men. This natural position made him smile, it suggested to himthe position to which he was burning to attain in the moral sphere. Thepure air of these lofty mountains breathed serenity and even joy into hissoul. The Mayor of Verrieres might still, in his eyes, be typical of all therich and insolent denizens of the earth, but Julien felt that the hatredwhich had convulsed him that afternoon contained, notwithstanding itsviolence, no element of personal ill-feeling. Should he cease to see M. deRenal, within a week he would have forgotten him, the man himself, hishouse, his dogs, his children and all that was his. 'I have forced him, I donot know how, to make the greatest of sacrifices. What, more than fiftycrowns a year? A moment earlier I had just escaped from the greatestdanger. That makes two victories in one day; the second contains nomerit, I must try to discover the reason. But we can leave such arduousresearch for tomorrow.'
Julien, erect upon his mighty rock, gazed at the sky, kindled to flameby an August sun. The grasshoppers were chirping in the patch of meadow beneath the rock; when they ceased everything around him was silence. Twenty leagues of country lay at his feet. From time to time ahawk, risen from the bare cliffs above his head, caught his eye as itwheeled silently in its vast circles. Julien's eye followed mechanically thebird of prey. Its calm, powerful motion impressed him, he envied suchstrength, he envied such isolation.
It was the destiny of Napoleon, was it one day to be his own?