feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Red and the Black/section_54_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Red and the Black.part 2.chapter 25
feat_summary_id: part 2, chapter 25
feat_summary: {"name": "Part 2, Chapter 25", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200920104425/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/red-and-the-black/summary/part-2-chapter-25", "summary": "Julien gets back to Paris and tells the Marquis de La Mole all about his meeting with the duke. The marquis seems really agitated by what he hears, but Julien couldn't care less. He's more interested in fulfilling his plot to get Mathilde to love him again. Julien then visits Count Altamira, whose friend used to flirt with the woman whom Julien is going to court . The woman's name is Madame de Fervaques, and Julien needs to inside scoop if he's going to win her over. Julien goes to dinner with the de La Moles for the evening. Later that night, Madame de Fervaques enters the house for a visit. He makes sure to sit near her. He finds out that she plans on going to the opera that night, so he finds a way of getting a box at the show near hers. Seeing Julien happy that night, Mathilde wonders again whether she really loves him. Basically, she loves him whenever he proves he can be happy without her. Go figure. She expects Julien to come pleading to her, but he never pays her any attention. As we learn, it takes every ounce of strength in Julien's body to keep him from breaking down and blubbering in front of Mathilde about how much he misses her.", "analysis": ""}
text: CHAPTER LV
  
  THE MINISTRY OF VIRTUE
  
  
          But if I take this pleasure with so much prudence
          and circumspection I shall no longer find it a
          pleasure.--_Lope de Vega_.
  
  
  As soon as our hero had returned to Paris and had come out of the
  study of the marquis de La Mole, who seemed very displeased with the
  despatches that were given him, he rushed off for the comte Altamira.
  This noble foreigner combined with the advantage of having once been
  condemned to death a very grave demeanour together with the good
  fortune of a devout temperament; these two qualities, and more than
  anything, the comte's high birth, made an especial appeal to madame de
  Fervaques who saw a lot of him.
  
  Julien solemnly confessed to him that he was very much in love with her.
  
  "Her virtue is the purest and the highest," answered Altamira, "only it
  is a little Jesuitical and dogmatic.
  
  "There are days when, though I understand each of the expressions which
  she makes use of, I never understand the whole sentence. She often
  makes me think that I do not know French as well as I am said to. But
  your acquaintance with her will get you talked about; it will give you
  weight in the world. But let us go to Bustos," said Count Altamira
  who had a methodical turn of mind; "he once paid court to madame la
  marechale."
  
  Don Diego Bustos had the matter explained to him at length, while he
  said nothing, like a barrister in his chambers. He had a big monk-like
  face with black moustaches and an inimitable gravity; he was, however,
  a good carbonaro.
  
  "I understand," he said to Julien at last. "Has the marechale de
  Fervaques had lovers, or has she not? Have you consequently any hope
  of success? That is the question. I don't mind telling you, for my own
  part, that I have failed. Now that I am no more piqued I reason it out
  to myself in this way; she is often bad tempered, and as I will tell
  you in a minute, she is quite vindictive.
  
  "I fail to detect in her that bilious temperament which is the sign of
  genius, and shows as it were a veneer of passion over all its actions.
  On the contrary, she owes her rare beauty and her fresh complexion to
  the phlegmatic, tranquil character of the Dutch."
  
  Julien began to lose patience with the phlegmatic slowness of the
  imperturbable Spaniard; he could not help giving vent to some
  monosyllables from time to time.
  
  "Will you listen to me?" Don Diego Bustos gravely said to him.
  
  "Forgive the _furia franchese_; I am all ears," said Julien.
  
  "The marechale de Fervaques then is a great hater; she persecutes
  ruthlessly people she has never seen--advocates, poor devils of men of
  letters who have composed songs like Colle, you know?
  
      "J'ai la marotte
       D'aimer Marote, etc."
  
  And Julien had to put up with the whole quotation.
  
  The Spaniard was very pleased to get a chance of singing in French.
  
  That divine song was never listened to more impatiently. When it was
  finished Don Diego said--"The marechale procured the dismissal of the
  author of the song:
  
      "Un jour l'amour au cabaret."
  
  Julien shuddered lest he should want to sing it. He contented himself
  with analysing it. As a matter of fact, it was blasphemous and somewhat
  indecent.
  
  "When the marechale become enraged against that song," said Don Diego,
  "I remarked to her that a woman of her rank ought not to read all the
  stupid things that are published. Whatever progress piety and gravity
  may make France will always have a cabaret literature.
  
  "'Be careful,' I said to madame de Fervaques when she had succeeded
  in depriving the author, a poor devil on half-pay, of a place worth
  eighteen hundred francs a year, 'you have attacked this rhymster with
  your own arms, he may answer you with his rhymes; he will make a song
  about virtue. The gilded salons will be on your side; but people who
  like to laugh will repeat his epigrams.' Do you know, monsieur, what
  the marechale answered? 'Let all Paris come and see me walking to my
  martyrdom for the sake of the Lord. It will be a new spectacle for
  France. The people will learn to respect the quality. It will be the
  finest day of my life.' Her eyes never looked finer."
  
  "And she has superb ones," exclaimed Julien.
  
  "I see that you are in love. Further," went on Don Diego Bustos
  gravely, "she has not the bilious constitution which causes
  vindictiveness. If, however, she likes to do harm, it is because she is
  unhappy, I suspect some secret misfortune. May it not be quite well a
  case of prude tired of her role?"
  
  The Spaniard looked at him in silence for a good minute.
  
  "That's the whole point," he added gravely, "and that's what may give
  you ground for some hope. I have often reflected about it during the
  two years that I was her very humble servant. All your future, my
  amorous sir, depends on this great problem. Is she a prude tired of her
  role and only malicious because she is unhappy?"
  
  "Or," said Altamira emerging at last from his deep silence, "can it be
  as I have said twenty times before, simply a case of French vanity; the
  memory of her father, the celebrated cloth merchant, constitutes the
  unhappiness of this frigid melancholy nature. The only happiness she
  could find would be to live in Toledo and to be tortured by a confessor
  who would show her hell wide open every day."
  
  "Altamira informs me you are one of us," said Don Diego, whose
  demeanour was growing graver and graver to Julien as he went out. "You
  will help us one day in re-winning our liberty, so I would like to help
  you in this little amusement. It is right that you should know the
  marechale's style; here are four letters in her hand-writing."
  
  "I will copy them out," exclaimed Julien, "and bring them back to you."
  
  "And you will never let anyone know a word of what we have been
  saying."
  
  "Never, on my honour," cried Julien.
  
  "Well, God help you," added the Spaniard, and he silently escorted
  Altamira and Julien as far as the staircase.
  
  This somewhat amused our hero; he was on the point of smiling. "So
  we have the devout Altamira," he said to himself, "aiding me in an
  adulterous enterprise."
  
  During Don Diego's solemn conversation Julien had been attentive to the
  hours struck by the clock of the Hotel d'Aligre.
  
  The dinner hour was drawing near, he was going to see Mathilde again.
  He went in and dressed with much care.
  
  "Mistake No. 1," he said to himself as he descended the staircase: "I
  must follow the prince's instructions to the letter."
  
  He went up to his room again and put on a travelling suit which was as
  simple as it could be. "All I have to do now," he thought, "is to keep
  control of my expression." It was only half-past five and they dined at
  six. He thought of going down to the salon which he found deserted. He
  was moved to the point of tears at the sight of the blue sofa. "I must
  make an end of this foolish sensitiveness," he said angrily, "it will
  betray me." He took up a paper in order to keep himself in countenance
  and passed three or four times from the salon into the garden.
  
  It was only when he was well concealed by a large oak and was trembling
  all over, that he ventured to raise his eyes at mademoiselle de la
  Mole's window. It was hermetically sealed; he was on the point of
  fainting and remained for a long time leaning against the oak; then
  with a staggering step he went to have another look at the gardener's
  ladder.
  
  The chain which he had once forced asunder--in, alas, such different
  circumstances--had not yet been repaired. Carried away by a moment of
  madness, Julien pressed it to his lips.
  
  After having wandered about for a long time between the salon and the
  garden, Julien felt horribly tired; he was now feeling acutely the
  effects of a first success. My eyes will be expressionless and will not
  betray me! The guests gradually arrived in the salon; the door never
  opened without instilling anxiety into Julien's heart.
  
  They sat down at table. Mademoiselle de la Mole, always faithful to her
  habit of keeping people waiting, eventually appeared. She blushed a
  great deal on seeing Julien, she had not been told of his arrival. In
  accordance with Prince Korasoff's recommendation, Julien looked at his
  hands. They were trembling. Troubled though he was beyond words by this
  discovery, he was sufficiently happy to look merely tired.
  
  M. de la Mole sang his praises. The marquise spoke to him a minute
  afterwards and complimented him on his tired appearance. Julien said to
  himself at every minute, "I ought not to look too much at mademoiselle
  de la Mole, I ought not to avoid looking at her too much either. I must
  appear as I was eight days before my unhappiness----" He had occasion
  to be satisfied with his success and remained in the salon. Paying
  attention for the first time to the mistress of the house, he made
  every effort to make the visitors speak and to keep the conversation
  alive.
  
  His politeness was rewarded; madame la marechale de Fervaques was
  announced about eight o'clock. Julien retired and shortly afterwards
  appeared dressed with the greatest care. Madame de la Mole was
  infinitely grateful to him for this mark of respect and made a point
  of manifesting her satisfaction by telling madame de Fervaques about
  his journey. Julien established himself near the marechale in such a
  position that Mathilde could not notice his eyes. In this position he
  lavished in accordance with all the rules in the art of love, the most
  abject admiration on madame de Fervaques. The first of the 53 letters
  with which Prince Korasoff had presented him commenced with a tirade on
  this sentiment.
  
  The marechale announced that she was going to the Opera-Bouffe. Julien
  rushed there. He ran across the Chevalier de Beauvoisis who took him
  into a box occupied by Messieurs the Gentlemen of the Chamber, just
  next to madame de Fervaques's box. Julien constantly looked at her. "I
  must keep a siege-journal," he said to himself as he went back to the
  hotel, "otherwise I shall forget my attacks." He wrote two or three
  pages on this boring theme, and in this way achieved the admirable
  result of scarcely thinking at all about mademoiselle de la Mole.
  
  Mathilde had almost forgotten him during his journey. "He is simply
  a commonplace person after all," she thought, "his name will always
  recall to me the greatest mistake in my life. I must honestly go back
  to all my ideas about prudence and honour; a woman who forgets them has
  everything to lose." She showed herself inclined to allow the contract
  with the marquis de Croisenois, which had been prepared so long ago, to
  be at last concluded. He was mad with joy; he would have been very much
  astonished had he been told that there was an element of resignation at
  the bottom of those feelings of Mathilde which made him so proud.
  
  All mademoiselle de la Mole's ideas changed when she saw Julien. "As a
  matter of fact he is my husband," she said to herself. "If I am sincere
  in my return to sensible notions, he is clearly the man I ought to
  marry."
  
  She was expecting importunities and airs of unhappiness on the part of
  Julien; she commenced rehearsing her answers, for he would doubtless
  try to address some words to her when they left the dinner table. Far
  from that he remained stubbornly in the salon and did not even look in
  the direction of the garden, though God knows what pain that caused him!
  
  "It is better to have this explanation out all at once," thought
  mademoiselle de la Mole; she went into the garden alone, Julien did not
  appear. Mathilde went and walked near the salon window. She found him
  very much occupied in describing to madame de Fervaques the old ruined
  chateau which crown the banks along the Rhine and invest them with so
  much atmosphere. He was beginning to acquit himself with some credit
  in that sentimental picturesque jargon which is called wit in certain
  salons. Prince Korasoff would have been very proud if he had been at
  Paris. This evening was exactly what he had predicted.
  
  He would have approved the line of conduct which Julien followed on the
  subsequent days.
  
  An intrigue among the members of the secret government was going to
  bestow a few blue ribbons; madame marechale de Fervaques was insisting
  on her great uncle being made a chevalier of the order. The marquis de
  la Mole had the same pretensions for his father-in-law; they joined
  forces and the marechale came to the Hotel de la Mole nearly every day.
  It was from her that Julien learned that the marquis was going to be
  a minister. He was offering to the _Camarilla_ a very ingenious plan
  for the annihilation of the charter within three years without any
  disturbance.
  
  If M. de la Mole became a minister, Julien could hope for a bishopric:
  but all these important interests seemed to be veiled and hazy. His
  imagination only perceived them very vaguely, and so to speak, in
  the far distance. The awful unhappiness which was making him into a
  madman could find no other interest in life except the character of his
  relations with mademoiselle de la Mole. He calculated that after five
  or six careful years he would manage to get himself loved again.
  
  This cold brain had been reduced, as one sees, to a state of complete
  disorder. Out of all the qualities which had formerly distinguished
  him, all that remained was a little firmness. He was literally faithful
  to the line of conduct which prince Korasoff had dictated, and placed
  himself every evening near madame Fervaques' armchair, but he found it
  impossible to think of a word to say to her.
  
  The strain of making Mathilde think that he had recovered exhausted his
  whole moral force, and when he was with the marechale he seemed almost
  lifeless; even his eyes had lost all their fire, as in cases of extreme
  physical suffering.
  
  As madame de la Mole's views were invariably a counterpart of the
  opinions of that husband of hers who could make her into a Duchess, she
  had been singing Julien's praises for some days.
  
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Part 2, Chapter 25
target: Julien gets back to Paris and tells the Marquis de La Mole all about his meeting with the duke. The marquis seems really agitated by what he hears, but Julien couldn't care less. He's more interested in fulfilling his plot to get Mathilde to love him again. Julien then visits Count Altamira, whose friend used to flirt with the woman whom Julien is going to court . The woman's name is Madame de Fervaques, and Julien needs to inside scoop if he's going to win her over. Julien goes to dinner with the de La Moles for the evening. Later that night, Madame de Fervaques enters the house for a visit. He makes sure to sit near her. He finds out that she plans on going to the opera that night, so he finds a way of getting a box at the show near hers. Seeing Julien happy that night, Mathilde wonders again whether she really loves him. Basically, she loves him whenever he proves he can be happy without her. Go figure. She expects Julien to come pleading to her, but he never pays her any attention. As we learn, it takes every ounce of strength in Julien's body to keep him from breaking down and blubbering in front of Mathilde about how much he misses her.