Manners and Customs in 1830Speech was given to man to enable him to conceal his thoughts.

　　MALAGRIDA, S.J.

　　The first thing that Julien did on arriving in Verrieres was to reproachhimself for his unfairness to Madame de Renal. 'I should have despisedher as a foolish woman if from weakness she had failed to bring off thescene with M. de Renal! She carried it through like a diplomat, and mysympathies are with the loser, who is my enemy. There is a streak ofmiddle-class pettiness in my nature; my vanity is hurt, because M. deRenal is a man! That vast and illustrous corporation to which I have thehonour to belong; I am a perfect fool.'

　　M. Chelan had refused the offers of hospitality which the most respected Liberals of the place had vied with one another in making him, whenhis deprivation drove him from the presbytery. The pair of rooms whichhe had taken were littered with his books. Julien, wishing to show Verrieres what it meant to be a priest, went and fetched from his father's storea dozen planks of firwood, which he carried on his back the wholelength of the main street. He borrowed some tools from an old friendand had soon constructed a sort of bookcase in which he arranged M.

　　Chelan's library.

　　'I supposed you to have been corrupted by the vanity of the world,'

　　said the old man, shedding tears of joy; 'this quite redeems the childishness of that dazzling guard of honour uniform which made you so manyenemies.'

　　M. de Renal had told Julien to put up in his house. No one had anysuspicion of what had happened. On the third day after his arrival, therecame up to his room no less a personage than the Sub-Prefect, M. deMaugiron. It was only after two solid hours of insipid tittle-tattle, andlong jeremiads on the wickedness of men, on the lack of honesty in thepeople entrusted with the administration of public funds, on the dangers besetting poor France, etc., etc., that Julien saw him come at length to thepurpose of his visit. They were already on the landing, and the poor tutor, on the verge of disgrace, was ushering out with all due respect thefuture Prefect of some fortunate Department, when it pleased the lattergentleman to occupy himself with Julien's career, to praise his moderation where his own interests were concerned, etc., etc. Finally M. deMaugiron, taking him in his arms in the most fatherly manner, suggestedto him that he should leave M. de Renal and enter the household of anofficial who had children to educate, and who, like King Philip, wouldthank heaven, not so much for having given him them as for havingcaused them to be born in the neighbourhood of M. Julien. Their tutorwould receive a salary of eight hundred francs, payable not month bymonth, 'which is not noble,' said M. de Maugiron, but quarterly, and inadvance to boot.

　　It was now the turn of Julien who, for an hour and a half, had beenwaiting impatiently for an opportunity to speak. His reply was perfect,and as long as a pastoral charge; it let everything be understood, and atthe same time said nothing definite. A listener would have found in it atonce respect for M. de Renal, veneration for the people of Verrieres andgratitude towards the illustrious Sub-Prefect. The said Sub-Prefect, astonished at finding a bigger Jesuit than himself, tried in vain to obtainsomething positive. Julien, overjoyed, seized the opportunity to try hisskill and began his answer over again in different terms. Never did themost eloquent Minister, seeking to monopolise the last hours of a sittingwhen the Chamber seems inclined to wake up, say less in more words.

　　As soon as M. de Maugiron had left him, Julien broke out in helplesslaughter. To make the most of his Jesuitical bent, he wrote a letter of ninepages to M. de Renal, in which he informed him of everything that hadbeen said to him, and humbly asked his advice. 'Why, that rascal nevereven told me the name of the person who is making the offer! It will beM. Valenod, who sees in my banishment to Verrieres the effect of his anonymous letter.'

　　His missive dispatched, Julien, as happy as a hunter who at six in themorning on a fine autumn day emerges upon a plain teeming withgame, went out to seek the advice of M. Chelan. But before he arrived atthe good cure's house, heaven, which was anxious to shower its blessings on him, threw him into the arms of M. Valenod, from whom he didnot conceal the fact that his heart was torn; a penniless youth like himselfwas bound to devote himself entirely to the vocation which heaven hadplaced in his heart, but a vocation was not everything in this vile world.

　　 To be a worthy labourer in the Lord's vineyard, and not to be altogetherunworthy of all one's learned fellow-labourers, one required education;one required to spend in the seminary at Besancon two very expensiveyears; it became indispensable, therefore, to save money, which was considerably easier with a salary of eight hundred francs paid quarterly,than with six hundred francs which melted away month by month. Onthe other hand, did not heaven, by placing him with the Renal boys, andabove all by inspiring in him a particular attachment to them, seem to indicate to him that it would be a mistake to abandon this form of education for another? …Julien arrived at such a pitch of perfection in this kind of eloquence,which has taken the place of the swiftness of action of the Empire, thathe ended by growing tired of the sound of his own voice.

　　Returning to the house he found one of M. Valenod's servants in fulllivery, who had been looking for him all over the town, with a note inviting him to dinner that very day.

　　Never had Julien set foot in the man's house; only a few days earlier,his chief thought was how he might give him a thorough good thrashingwithout subsequent action by the police. Although dinner was not to beuntil one o'clock, Julien thought it more respectful to present himself athalf past twelve in the study of the Governor of the Poorhouse. He foundhim displaying his importance amid a mass of papers. His huge blackwhiskers, his enormous quantity of hair, his night-cap poised askew onthe top of his head, his immense pipe, his embroidered slippers, theheavy gold chains slung across his chest in every direction, and all theequipment of a provincial financier, who imagines himself to be a ladies'

　　man, made not the slightest impression upon Julien; he only thought allthe more of the thrashing that he owed him.

　　He craved the honour of being presented to Madame Valenod; shewas making her toilet and could not see him. To make up for this, he hadthe privilege of witnessing that of the Governor of the Poorhouse. Theythen proceeded to join Madame Valenod, who presented her children tohim with tears in her eyes. This woman, one of the most importantpeople in Verrieres, had a huge masculine face, which she had plasteredwith rouge for this great ceremony. She displayed all the pathos of maternal feelings.

　　Julien thought of Madame de Renal. His distrustful nature made himscarcely susceptible to any memories save those that are evoked by contrast, but such memories moved him to tears. This tendency was increased by the sight of the Governor's house. He was taken through it.

　　Everything in it was sumptuous and new, and he was told the price ofeach article. But Julien felt that there was something mean about it, ataint of stolen money. Everyone, even the servants, wore a bold air thatseemed to be fortifying them against contempt.

　　The collector of taxes, the receiver of customs, the chief constable andtwo or three other public officials arrived with their wives. They werefollowed by several wealthy Liberals. Dinner was announced. Julien,already in the worst of humours, suddenly reflected that on the otherside of the dining-room wall there were wretched prisoners, whose rations of meat had perhaps been squeezed to purchase all this tastelesssplendour with which his hosts sought to dazzle him.

　　'They are hungry perhaps at this moment,' he said to himself; histhroat contracted, he found it impossible to eat and almost to speak. Itwas much worse a quarter of an hour later; they could hear in the distance a few snatches of a popular and, it must be admitted, not too refined song which one of the inmates was singing. M. Valenod glanced atone of his men in full livery, who left the room, and presently the soundof singing ceased. At that moment, a footman offered Julien some Rhinewine in a green glass, and Madame Valenod took care to inform him thatthis wine cost nine francs the bottle, direct from the grower. Julien, thegreen glass in his hand, said to M. Valenod:

　　'I don't hear that horrid song any more.'

　　'Gad! I should think not, indeed,' replied the Governor triumphantly.

　　'I've made the rascal shut up.'

　　This was too much for Julien; he had acquired the manners but hadnot yet the heart appropriate to his station. Despite all his hypocrisy,which he kept in such constant practice, he felt a large tear trickle downhis cheek.

　　He tried to hide it with the green glass, but it was simply impossiblefor him to do honour to the Rhine wine. 'Stop the man singing!' he murmured to himself, 'O my God, and Thou permittest it!'

　　Fortunately for him, no one noticed his ill-bred emotion. The collectorof taxes had struck up a royalist ditty. During the clamour of the refrain,sung in chorus: 'There,' Julien's conscience warned him, 'you have thesordid fortune which you will achieve, and you will enjoy it only in theseconditions and in such company as this! You will have a place worthperhaps twenty thousand francs, but it must be that while you gorge torepletion you stop the poor prisoner from singing; you will give dinner parties with the money you have filched from his miserable pittance, andduring your dinner he will be more wretched still! O Napoleon! Howpleasant it was in your time to climb to fortune through the dangers of abattle; but meanly to intensify the sufferings of the wretched!'

　　I admit that the weakness which Julien displays in this monologuegives me a poor opinion of him. He would be a worthy colleague forthose conspirators in yellow gloves, who profess to reform all the conditions of life in a great country, and would be horrified at having to undergo the slightest inconvenience themselves.

　　Julien was sharply recalled to his proper part. It was not that he mightdream and say nothing that he had been invited to dine in such goodcompany.

　　A retired calico printer, a corresponding member of the Academy ofBesancon and of that of Uzes, was speaking to him, down the wholelength of the table, inquiring whether all that was commonly reported asto his astonishing prowess in the study of the New Testament was true.

　　A profound silence fell instantly; a New Testament appeared asthough by magic in the hands of the learned member of the twoacademies. Julien having answered in the affirmative, a few words inLatin were read out to him at random. He began to recite: his memorydid not betray him, and this prodigy was admired with all the noisy energy of the end of a dinner. Julien studied the glowing faces of the women. Several of them were not ill-looking. He had made out the wife ofthe collector who sang so well.

　　'Really, I am ashamed to go on speaking Latin so long before theseladies,' he said, looking at her. 'If M. Rubigneau' (this was the member ofthe two academies) 'will be so good as to read out any sentence in Latin,instead of going on with the Latin text, I shall endeavour to improvise atranslation.'

　　This second test set the crown of glory on his achievement.

　　There were in the room a number of Liberals, men of means, but thehappy fathers of children who were capable of winning bursaries, and inthis capacity suddenly converted after the last Mission. Despite this brilliant stroke of policy, M. de Renal had never consented to have them inhis house. These worthy folk, who knew Julien only by reputation andfrom having seen him on horseback on the day of the King of ——'s visit,were his most vociferous admirers. 'When will these fools tire of listening to this Biblical language, of which they understand nothing?' he thought. On the contrary, this language amused them by its unfamiliarity; they laughed at it. But Julien had grown tired.

　　He rose gravely as six o'clock struck and mentioned a chapter of thenew theology of Liguori, which he had to learn by heart in order to repeat it next day to M. Chelan. 'For my business,' he added pleasantly, 'isto make other people repeat lessons, and to repeat them myself.'

　　His audience laughed heartily and applauded; this is the kind of witthat goes down at Verrieres. Julien was by this time on his feet, everyoneelse rose, regardless of decorum; such is the power of genius. MadameValenod kept him for a quarter of an hour longer; he really must hear thechildren repeat their catechism; they made the most absurd mistakeswhich he alone noticed. He made no attempt to correct them. 'What ignorance of the first principles of religion,' he thought. At length he saidgood-bye and thought that he might escape; but the children must nextattempt one of La Fontaine's Fables.

　　'That author is most immoral,' Julien said to Madame Valenod; 'in oneof his Fables on Messire Jean Chouart, he has ventured to heap ridiculeon all that is most venerable. He is strongly reproved by the bestcommentators.'

　　Before leaving ............