Cock-crowAmour en latin faict amor; Or done provient d'amour la mort, Et,par avant, soulcy qui mord, Deuil, plours, pieges, forfaitz,remord …Blason d'amourIf Julien had had a little of that discernment which he so gratuitouslysupposed himself to possess, he might have congratulated himself nextday on the effect produced by his visit to Verrieres. His absence hadcaused his clumsiness to be forgotten. All that day too, he was inclined tosulk; towards nightfall a preposterous idea occurred to him, and he imparted it to Madame de Renal with a rare intrepidity.

　　No sooner had they sat down in the garden than, without waiting for asufficient cloak of darkness, Julien put his lips to Madame de Renal's ear,and, at the risk of compromising her horribly, said to her:

　　'Tonight, Ma'am, at two o'clock, I am coming to your room, I havesomething to say to you.'

　　Julien was trembling lest his request should be granted; the part of aseducer was so horrible a burden that if he had been free to follow hisown inclination, he would have retired to his room for some days, andnot set eyes on the ladies again. He realised that, by his clever tactics ofyesterday, he had squandered all the promise of the day before, andreally he did not know where to turn.

　　Madame de Renal replied with a genuine and by no means exaggerated indignation to the impertinent announcement which Julien had hadthe audacity to make. He thought he could read scorn in her brief answer. It was certain that in this answer, uttered in the lowest of tones, theword 'Fie!' had figured. Making the excuse that he had something to sayto the children, Julien went up to their room, and on his return placedhimself by the side of Madame Derville and at a distance from Madame de Renal. He thus removed from himself all possibility of taking herhand. The conversation took a serious turn, and Julien held his own admirably, apart from a few intervals of silence during which he cudgelledhis brains. 'Why cannot I think of some fine plan,' he asked himself, 'toforce Madame de Renal to show me those unmistakable marks of affection which made me imagine, three days ago, that she was mine!'

　　Julien was extremely disconcerted by the almost desperate situationinto which he had been led. And yet nothing could have embarrassedhim so much as success.

　　When the party broke up at midnight, his pessimism led him to believe that Madame Derville looked upon him with contempt, and thatprobably he stood no higher in the favour of Madame de Renal.

　　Being in an extremely bad temper and deeply humiliated, Julien couldnot sleep. He was a thousand leagues from any thought of abandoningall pretence, all his plans, and of living from day to day with Madame deRenal, contenting himself like a child with the happiness that each daywould bring.

　　He wearied his brain in devising clever stratagems; a moment later, hefelt them to be absurd; he was in short extremely wretched, when twostruck from the clock tower.

　　This sound aroused him as the crow of the cock aroused Saint Peter.

　　He saw himself arrived at the moment of the most distressing event. Hehad not thought once again of his impertinent suggestion, from the moment in which he had made it. It had met with so hostile a reception!

　　'I told her that I should come to her at two o'clock,' he said to himselfas he rose; 'I may be inexperienced and coarse, as is natural in the son ofa peasant, Madame Derville has let me see that plainly enough; but atany rate I will not be weak.'

　　Julien had every right to praise his own courage, never had he set himself a more painful task. As he opened the door of his room, he trembledso much that his knees gave way beneath him, and he was obliged tole............