feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Red and the Black/section_23_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Red and the Black.part 1.chapter 24
feat_summary_id: part 1, chapter 24
feat_summary: {"name": "Part 1, Chapter 24", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200920104425/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/red-and-the-black/summary/part-1-chapter-24", "summary": "Julien arrives in Besancon. The first thing he does there is go into a cafe because he likes the feeling of being a solitary, handsome traveller in a strange new place. When he reaches the cafe, he strikes up a conversation with a waitress and flirts with her. Soon enough, one of the waitress' boyfriends shows up and starts giving him a mean stare. He decides he wants to fight a duel with the guy, but the waitress stops him. She writes her name on a card for him and tells him to come ask for her later, saying that he's her cousin from away. Julien leaves thinking he's scored a romantic victory. Before going to the seminary, Julien asks an older woman to watch his clothes for him. He wants access to them in case he goes back to meet the girl from the cafe.", "analysis": ""}
text: CHAPTER XXIV
  
  A CAPITAL
  
  
          What a noise, what busy people! What ideas for the
          future in a brain of twenty! What distraction offered by
          love.--_Barnave_.
  
  
  Finally he saw some black walls near a distant mountain. It was the
  citadel of Besancon. "How different it would be for me," he said
  with a sigh, "if I were arriving at this noble military town to be
  sub-lieutenant in one of the regiments entrusted with its defence."
  Besancon is not only one of the prettiest towns in France, it abounds
  in people of spirit and brains. But Julien was only a little peasant,
  and had no means of approaching distinguished people.
  
  He had taken a civilian suit at Fouque's, and it was in this dress that
  he passed the drawbridge. Steeped as he was in the history of the siege
  of 1674, he wished to see the ramparts of the citadel before shutting
  himself up in the seminary. He was within an ace two or three times
  of getting himself arrested by the sentinel. He was penetrating into
  places which military genius forbids the public to enter, in order to
  sell twelve or fifteen francs worth of corn every year.
  
  The height of the walls, the depth of the ditches, the terrible aspect
  of the cannons had been engrossing him for several hours when he passed
  before the great cafe on the boulevard. He was motionless with wonder;
  it was in vain that he read the word _cafe_, written in big characters
  above the two immense doors. He could not believe his eyes. He made an
  effort to overcome his timidity. He dared to enter, and found himself
  in a hall twenty or thirty yards long, and with a ceiling at least
  twenty feet high. To-day, everything had a fascination for him.
  
  Two games of billiards were in progress. The waiters were crying out
  the scores. The players ran round the tables encumbered by spectators.
  Clouds of tobacco smoke came from everybody's mouth, and enveloped them
  in a blue haze. The high stature of these men, their rounded shoulders,
  their heavy gait, their enormous whiskers, the long tailed coats which
  covered them, everything combined to attract Julien's attention. These
  noble children of the antique Bisontium only spoke at the top of their
  voice. They gave themselves terrible martial airs. Julien stood still
  and admired them. He kept thinking of the immensity and magnificence
  of a great capital like Besancon. He felt absolutely devoid of the
  requisite courage to ask one of those haughty looking gentlemen, who
  were crying out the billiard scores, for a cup of coffee.
  
  But the young lady at the bar had noticed the charming face of this
  young civilian from the country, who had stopped three feet from
  the stove with his little parcel under his arm, and was looking at
  the fine white plaster bust of the king. This young lady, a big
  _Franc-comtoise_, very well made, and dressed with the elegance
  suitable to the prestige of the cafe, had already said two or three
  times in a little voice not intended to be heard by any one except
  Julien, "Monsieur, Monsieur." Julien's eyes encountered big blue eyes
  full of tenderness, and saw that he was the person who was being spoken
  to.
  
  He sharply approached the bar and the pretty girl, as though he had
  been marching towards the enemy. In this great manoeuvre the parcel fell.
  
  What pity will not our provincial inspire in the young lycee scholars
  of Paris, who, at the early age of fifteen, know already how to enter
  a cafe with so distinguished an air? But these children who have such
  style at fifteen turn commonplace at eighteen. The impassioned timidity
  which is met with in the provinces, sometimes manages to master its own
  nervousness, and thus trains the will. "I must tell her the truth,"
  thought Julien, who was becoming courageous by dint of conquering his
  timidity as he approached this pretty girl, who deigned to address him.
  
  "Madame, this is the first time in my life that I have come to
  Besancon. I should like to have some bread and a cup of coffee in
  return for payment."
  
  The young lady smiled a little, and then blushed. She feared the ironic
  attention and the jests of the billiard players might be turned against
  this pretty young man. He would be frightened and would not appear
  there again.
  
  "Sit here near me," she said to him, showing him a marble table almost
  completely hidden by the enormous mahogany counter which extended into
  the hall.
  
  The young lady leant over the counter, and had thus an opportunity of
  displaying a superb figure. Julien noticed it. All his ideas changed.
  The pretty young lady had just placed before him a cup, some sugar, and
  a little roll. She hesitated to call a waiter for the coffee, as she
  realised that his arrival would put an end to her _tete-a-tete_ with
  Julien.
  
  Julien was pensively comparing this blonde and merry beauty with
  certain memories which would often thrill him. The thought of the
  passion of which he had been the object, nearly freed him from all
  his timidity. The pretty young woman had only one moment to save the
  situation. She read it in Julien's looks.
  
  "This pipe smoke makes you cough; come and have breakfast to-morrow
  before eight o'clock in the morning. I am practically alone then."
  
  "What is your name?" said Julien, with the caressing smile of happy
  timidity.
  
  "Amanda Binet."
  
  "Will you allow me to send you within an hour's time a little parcel
  about as big as this?"
  
  The beautiful Amanda reflected a little.
  
  "I am watched. What you ask may compromise me. All the same, I will
  write my address on a card, which you will put on your parcel. Send it
  boldly to me."
  
  "My name is Julien Sorel," said the young man. "I have neither
  relatives nor acquaintances at Besancon."
  
  "Ah, I understand," she said joyfully. "You come to study law."
  
  "Alas, no," answered Julien, "I am being sent to the Seminary."
  
  The most complete discouragement damped Amanda's features. She called
  a waiter. She had courage now. The waiter poured out some coffee for
  Julien without looking at him.
  
  Amanda was receiving money at the counter. Julien was proud of having
  dared to speak: a dispute was going on at one of the billiard tables.
  The cries and the protests of the players resounded over the immense
  hall, and made a din which astonished Julien. Amanda was dreamy, and
  kept her eyes lowered.
  
  "If you like, Mademoiselle," he said to her suddenly with assurance, "I
  will say that I am your cousin."
  
  This little air of authority pleased Amanda. "He's not a mere nobody,"
  she thought. She spoke to him very quickly, without looking at him,
  because her eye was occupied in seeing if anybody was coming near the
  counter.
  
  "I come from Genlis, near Dijon. Say that you are also from Genlis and
  are my mother's cousin."
  
  "I shall not fail to do so."
  
  "All the gentlemen who go to the Seminary pass here before the cafe
  every Thursday in the summer at five o'clock."
  
  "If you think of me when I am passing, have a bunch of violets in your
  hand."
  
  Amanda looked at him with an astonished air. This look changed Julien's
  courage into audacity. Nevertheless, he reddened considerably, as he
  said to her. "I feel that I love you with the most violent love."
  
  "Speak in lower tones," she said to him with a frightened air.
  
  Julien was trying to recollect phrases out of a volume of the _Nouvelle
  Heloise_ which he had found at Vergy. His memory served him in good
  stead. For ten minutes he recited the _Nouvelle Heloise_ to the
  delighted Mademoiselle Amanda. He was happy on the strength of his own
  bravery, when suddenly the beautiful Franc-contoise assumed an icy
  air. One of her lovers had appeared at the cafe door. He approached
  the bar, whistling, and swaggering his shoulders. He looked at Julien.
  The latter's imagination, which always indulged in extremes, suddenly
  brimmed over with ideas of a duel. He paled greatly, put down his
  cup, assumed an assured demeanour, and considered his rival very
  attentively. As this rival lowered his head, while he familiarly poured
  out on the counter a glass of brandy for himself, Amanda ordered Julien
  with a look to lower his eyes. He obeyed, and for two minutes kept
  motionless in his place, pale, resolute, and only thinking of what was
  going to happen. He was truly happy at this moment. The rival had been
  astonished by Julien's eyes. Gulping down his glass of brandy, he said
  a few words to Amanda, placed his two hands in the pockets of his big
  tail coat, and approached the billiard table, whistling, and looking at
  Julien. The latter got up transported with rage, but he did not know
  what to do in order to be offensive. He put down his little parcel, and
  walked towards the billiard table with all the swagger he could muster.
  
  It was in vain that prudence said to him, "but your ecclesiastical
  career will be ruined by a duel immediately on top of your arrival at
  Besancon."
  
  "What does it matter. It shall never be said that I let an insolent
  fellow go scot free."
  
  Amanda saw his courage. It contrasted prettily with the simplicity of
  his manners. She instantly preferred him to the big young man with the
  tail coat. She got up, and while appearing to be following with her eye
  somebody who was passing in the street, she went and quickly placed
  herself between him and the billiard table.
  
  "Take care not to look askance at that gentleman. He is my
  brother-in-law."
  
  "What does it matter? He looked at me."
  
  "Do you want to make me unhappy? No doubt he looked at you, why it may
  be he is going to speak to you. I told him that you were a relative of
  my mother, and that you had arrived from Genlis. He is a Franc-contois,
  and has never gone beyond Doleon the Burgundy Road, so say what you
  like and fear nothing."
  
  Julien was still hesitating. Her barmaid's imagination furnished her
  with an abundance of lies, and she quickly added.
  
  "No doubt he looked at you, but it was at a moment when he was asking
  me who you were. He is a man who is boorish with everyone. He did not
  mean to insult you."
  
  Julien's eye followed the pretended brother-in-law. He saw him buy a
  ticket for the pool, which they were playing at the further of the
  two billiard tables. Julien heard his loud voice shouting out in a
  threatening tone, "My turn to play."
  
  He passed sharply before Madame Amanda, and took a step towards the
  billiard table. Amanda seized him by the arm.
  
  "Come and pay me first," she said to him.
  
  "That is right," thought Julien. "She is frightened that I shall leave
  without paying." Amanda was as agitated as he was, and very red. She
  gave him the change as slowly as she could, while she repeated to him,
  in a low voice,
  
  "Leave the cafe this instant, or I shall love you no more, and yet I do
  love you very much."
  
  Julien did go out, but slowly. "Am I not in duty bound," he repeated
  to himself, "to go and stare at that coarse person in my turn?" This
  uncertainty kept him on the boulevard in the front of the cafe for an
  hour; he kept looking if his man was coming out. He did not come out,
  and Julien went away.
  
  He had only been at Besancon some hours, and already he had overcome
  one pang of remorse. The old surgeon-major had formerly given him some
  fencing lessons, in spite of his gout. That was all the science which
  Julien could enlist in the service of his anger. But this embarrassment
  would have been nothing if he had only known how to vent his temper
  otherwise than by the giving of a blow, for if it had come to a matter
  of fisticuffs, his enormous rival would have beaten him and then
  cleared out.
  
  "There is not much difference between a seminary and a prison," said
  Julien to himself, "for a poor devil like me, without protectors and
  without money. I must leave my civilian clothes in some inn, where I
  can put my black suit on again. If I ever manage to get out of the
  seminary for a few hours, I shall be able to see Mdlle. Amanda again in
  my lay clothes." This reasoning was all very fine. Though Julien passed
  in front of all the inns, he did not dare to enter a single one.
  
  Finally, as he was passing again before the Hotel des Ambassadeurs, his
  anxious eyes encountered those of a big woman, still fairly young, with
  a high colour, and a gay and happy air. He approached her and told his
  story.
  
  "Certainly, my pretty little abbe," said the hostess of the
  Ambassadeurs to him, "I will keep your lay clothes for you, and I will
  even have them regularly brushed. In weather like this, it is not good
  to leave a suit of cloth without touching it." She took a key, and
  conducted him herself to a room, and advised him to make out a note of
  what he was leaving.
  
  "Good heavens. How well you look like that, M. the abbe Sorel," said
  the big woman to him when he came down to the kitchen. I will go and
  get a good dinner served up to you, and she added in a low voice, "It
  will only cost twenty sous instead of the fifty which everybody else
  pays, for one must really take care of your little purse strings."
  
  "I have ten louis," Julien replied with certain pride.
  
  "Oh, great heavens," answered the good hostess in alarm. "Don't talk
  so loud, there are quite a lot of bad characters in Besancon. They'll
  steal all that from you in less than no time, and above all, never go
  into the cafe s, they are filled with bad characters."
  
  "Indeed," said Julien, to whom those words gave food for thought.
  
  "Don't go anywhere else, except to my place. I will make coffee for
  you. Remember that you will always find a friend here, and a good
  dinner for twenty sous. So now you understand, I hope. Go and sit down
  at table, I will serve you myself."
  
  "I shan't be able to eat," said Julien to her. "I am too upset. I am
  going to enter the seminary, as I leave you." The good woman, would not
  allow him to leave before she had filled his pockets with provisions.
  Finally Julien took his road towards the terrible place. The hostess
  was standing at the threshold, and showed him the way.
  
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Part 1, Chapter 24
target: Julien arrives in Besancon. The first thing he does there is go into a cafe because he likes the feeling of being a solitary, handsome traveller in a strange new place. When he reaches the cafe, he strikes up a conversation with a waitress and flirts with her. Soon enough, one of the waitress' boyfriends shows up and starts giving him a mean stare. He decides he wants to fight a duel with the guy, but the waitress stops him. She writes her name on a card for him and tells him to come ask for her later, saying that he's her cousin from away. Julien leaves thinking he's scored a romantic victory. Before going to the seminary, Julien asks an older woman to watch his clothes for him. He wants access to them in case he goes back to meet the girl from the cafe.