finished_summaries/shmoop/The Red and the Black/section_36_part_0.txt
The Red and the Black.part 2.chapter 7
part 2, chapter 7
{"name": "Part 2, Chapter 7", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200920104425/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/red-and-the-black/summary/part-2-chapter-7", "summary": "The Marquis de La Mole tells Julien to go buy a new blue suit to wear around the house. It's only when he's wearing this suit that the marquis is able to treat him as an equal. When he's wearing his priest's black robes, the Marquis can't help but feel like they're different. The marquis is confined to his bed by an attack of gout. Julien visits him and entertains him with the story of how he came to fight a duel in Paris. The marquis gives Julien more and more responsibilities. He soon finds out that his financial advisors have been swindling him and hiding money from him. The marquis gives Julien the generous sum of 3,000 francs for helping him. When the marquis tries to give Julien another gift, Julien declines. This impresses the marquis. The marquis sends Julien to do some business in England. While there, Julien makes friends with a Russian nobleman named Prince Korasoff. Julien wants to meet some famous English philosopher, but then finds out that the guy is in jail for speaking his mind. When he gets back to France, the marquis scolds him for some political remarks he made to some foreign diplomats. Julien says that it wouldn't be good enough to make boring chitchat with these people. He had to say something substantial. The marquis gives Julien a special medal to wear around his neck whenever he's acting as the youngest son of the marquis' friend. When he's not wearing it, he'll just be the marquis' secretary. That'll help the marquis decide how to behave toward him. But to be sure, he wants Julien to know that this doesn't make him a nobleman. It's all just temporary. Monsieur Valenod from Verrieres visits the de La Mole house as the newly elected mayor of his town. It looks like he beat out Monsieur de Renal for the job. As a joke, Julien recommends a local imbecile for a posting in Verrieres. The marquis agrees that it would be a good joke and gives the man the position. Only later does Julien realize that he has kept a good, honorable man from getting the position. He feels guilty for toying with people's futures.", "analysis": ""}
CHAPTER XXXVII

AN ATTACK OF GOUT


     And I got advancement, not on my merit, but because my
                master had the gout.--_Bertolotti_.

The reader is perhaps surprised by this free and almost friendly tone.
We had forgotten to say that the marquis had been confined to his house
for six weeks by the gout.

Mademoiselle de la Mole and her mother were at Hyeres near the
marquise's mother. The comte Norbert only saw his father at stray
moments. They got on very well, but had nothing to say to each other.
M. de la Mole, reduced to Julien's society, was astonished to find that
he possessed ideas. He made him read the papers to him. Soon the young
secretary was competent to pick out the interesting passages. There was
a new paper which the marquis abhorred. He had sworn never to read it,
and spoke about it every day. Julien laughed. In his irritation against
the present time, the marquis made him read Livy aloud. The improvised
translation of the Latin text amused him. The marquis said one day
in that tone of excessive politeness which frequently tried Julien's
patience,

"Allow me to present you with a blue suit, my dear Sorel. When you find
it convenient to wear it and to come and see me, I shall look upon you
as the younger brother of the comte de Chaulnes, that is to say, the
son of my friend the old Duke."

Julien did not quite gather what it was all about, but he tried a visit
in the blue suit that very evening. The marquis treated him like an
equal. Julien had a spirit capable of appreciating true politeness, but
he had no idea of nuances. Before this freak of the marquis's he would
have sworn that it was impossible for him to have been treated with
more consideration. "What an admirable talent," said Julien to himself.
When he got up to go, the marquis apologised for not being able to
accompany him by reason of his gout.

Julien was preoccupied by this strange idea. "Perhaps he is making fun
of me," he thought. He went to ask advice of the abbe Pirard, who being
less polite than the marquis, made no other answer except to whistle
and change the subject.

Julien presented himself to the marquis the next morning in his black
suit, with his letter case and his letters for signature. He was
received in the old way, but when he wore the blue suit that evening,
the marquis's tone was quite different, and absolutely as polite as on
the previous day.

"As you are not exactly bored," said the marquis to him, "by these
visits which you are kind enough to pay to a poor old man, you must
tell him about all the little incidents of your life, but you must
be frank and think of nothing except narrating them clearly and in
an amusing way. For one must amuse oneself," continued the marquis.
"That's the only reality in life. I can't have my life saved in a
battle every day, or get a present of a million francs every day, but
if I had Rivarol here by my sofa he would rid me every day of an hour
of suffering and boredom. I saw a lot of him at Hamburg during the
emigration."

And the marquis told Julien the stories of Rivarol and the inhabitants
of Hamburg who needed the combined efforts of four individuals to
understand an epigram. M. de la Mole, being reduced to the society of
this little abbe, tried to teach him. He put Julien's pride on its
mettle. As he was asked to speak the truth, Julien resolved to tell
everything, but to suppress two things, his fanatical admiration for
the name which irritated the marquis, and that complete scepticism,
which was not particularly appropriate to a prospective cure. His
little affair with the chevalier de Beauvoisis came in very handy. The
marquis laughed till the tears came into his eyes at the scene in the
cafe in the Rue St. Honore with the coachman who had loaded him with
sordid insults. The occasion was marked by a complete frankness between
the marquis and the protege.

M. de la Mole became interested in this singular character. At the
beginning he had encouraged Julian's droll blunders in order to enjoy
laughing at them. Soon he found it more interesting to correct very
gently this young man's false outlook on life.

"All other provincials who come to Paris admire everything,"
thought the marquis. "This one hates everything. They have too much
affectation; he has not affectation enough; and fools take him for a
fool."

The attack of gout was protracted by the great winter cold and lasted
some months.

"One gets quite attached to a fine spaniel," thought the marquis. "Why
should I be so ashamed of being attached to this little abbe? He is
original. I treat him as a son. Well, where's the bother? The whim, if
it lasts, will cost me a diamond and five hundred louis in my will."
Once the marquis had realised his protege's strength of character, he
entrusted him with some new business every day.

Julien noticed with alarm that this great lord would often give him
inconsistent orders with regard to the same matter.

That might compromise him seriously. Julien now made a point whenever
he worked with him, of bringing a register with him in which he wrote
his instructions which the marquis initialled. Julien had now a clerk
who would transcribe the instructions relating to each matter in a
separate book. This book also contained a copy of all the letters.

This idea seemed at first absolutely boring and ridiculous, but in two
months the marquis appreciated its advantages. Julien suggested to him
that he should take a clerk out of a banker's who was to keep proper
book-keeping accounts of all the receipts and of all the expenses of
the estates which Julien had been charged to administer.

These measures so enlightened the marquis as to his own affairs that
he could indulge the pleasure of undertaking two or three speculations
without the help of his nominee who always robbed him.

"Take three thousand francs for yourself," he said one day to his young
steward.

"Monsieur, I should lay myself open to calumny."

"What do you want then?" retorted the marquis irritably.

"Perhaps you will be kind enough to make out a statement of account and
enter it in your own hand in the book. That order will give me a sum of
3,000 francs. Besides it's M. the abbe Pirard who had the idea of all
this exactness in accounts." The marquis wrote out his instructions in
the register with the bored air of the Marquis de Moncade listening to
the accounts of his steward M. Poisson.

Business was never talked when Julien appeared in the evening in
his blue suit. The kindness of the marquis was so flattering to the
self-respect of our hero, which was always morbidly sensitive, that
in spite of himself, he soon came to feel a kind of attachment for
this nice old man. It is not that Julien was a man of sensibility
as the phrase is understood at Paris, but he was not a monster, and
no one since the death of the old major had talked to him with so
much kindness. He observed that the marquis showed a politeness and
consideration for his own personal feelings which he had never found in
the old surgeon. He now realised that the surgeon was much prouder of
his cross than was the marquis of his blue ribbon. The marquis's father
had been a great lord.

One day, at the end of a morning audience for the transaction of
business, when the black suit was worn, Julien happened to amuse the
marquis who kept him for a couple of hours, and insisted on giving him
some banknotes which his nominee had just brought from the house.

"I hope M. le Marquis, that I am not deviating from the profound
respect which I owe you, if I beg you to allow me to say a word."

"Speak, my friend."

"M. le Marquis will deign to allow me to refuse this gift. It is not
meant for the man in the black suit, and it would completely spoil
those manners which you have kindly put up with in the man in the blue
suit." He saluted with much respect and went out without looking at his
employer.

This incident amused the marquis. He told it in the evening to the abbe
Pirard.

"I must confess one thing to you, my dear abbe. I know Julien's birth,
and I authorise you not to regard this confidence as a secret."

His conduct this morning is noble, thought the marquis, so I will
ennoble him myself.

Some time afterwards the marquis was able to go out.

"Go and pass a couple of months at London," he said to Julien.
"Ordinary and special couriers will bring you the letters I have
received, together with my notes. You will write out the answers and
send them back to me, putting each letter inside the answer. I have
ascertained that the delay will be no more than five days."

As he took the post down the Calais route, Julien was astonished at the
triviality of the alleged business on which he had been sent.

We will say nothing about the feeling of hate and almost horror with
which he touched English soil. His mad passion for Bonaparte is already
known. He saw in every officer a Sir Hudson Low, in every great
noble a Lord Bathurst, ordering the infamies of St. Helena and being
recompensed by six years of office.

At London he really got to know the meaning of sublime fatuity. He had
struck up a friendship with some young Russian nobles who initiated him.

"Your future is assured, my dear Sorel," they said to him. "You
naturally have that cold demeanour, _a thousand leagues away from the
sensation one has at the moment_, that we have been making such efforts
to acquire."

"You have not understood your century," said the Prince Korasoff to
him. "Always do the opposite of what is expected of you. On my honour
there you have the sole religion of the period. Don't be foolish or
affected, for then follies and affectations will be expected of you,
and the maxim will not longer prove true."

Julien covered himself with glory one day in the Salon of the Duke
of Fitz-Folke who had invited him to dinner together with the Prince
Korasoff. They waited for an hour. The way in which Julien conducted
himself in the middle of twenty people who were waiting is still quoted
as a precedent among the young secretaries of the London Embassy. His
demeanour was unimpeachable.

In spite of his friends, the dandies, he made a point of seeing the
celebrated Philip Vane, the one philosopher that England has had
since Locke. He found him finishing his seventh year in prison. The
aristocracy doesn't joke in this country, thought Julien. Moreover Vane
is disgraced, calumniated, etc.

Julien found him in cheery spirits. The rage of the aristocracy
prevented him from being bored. "There's the only merry man I've seen
in England," thought Julien to himself, as he left the prison.

"The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God," Vane had
said to him.

We suppress the rest of the system as being cynical.

"What amusing notion do you bring me from England?" said M. la Mole to
him on his return. He was silent. "What notion do you bring me, amusing
or otherwise?" repeated the marquis sharply.

"In the first place," said Julien, "The sanest Englishman is mad one
hour every day. He is visited by the Demon of Suicide who is the local
God.

"In the second place, intellect and genius lose twenty-five per cent.
of their value when they disembark in England.

"In the third place, nothing in the world is so beautiful, so
admirable, so touching, as the English landscapes."

"Now it is my turn," said the marquis.

"In the first place, why do you go and say at the ball at the Russian
Ambassador's that there were three hundred thousand young men of twenty
in France who passionately desire war? Do you think that is nice for
the kings?"

"One doesn't know what to do when talking to great diplomats," said
Julien. "They have a mania for starting serious discussions. If one
confines oneself to the commonplaces of the papers, one is taken for a
fool. If one indulges in some original truth, they are astonished and
at a loss for an answer, and get you informed by the first Secretary
of the Embassy at seven o'clock next day that your conduct has been
unbecoming."

"Not bad," said the marquis laughing. "Anyway I will wager Monsieur
Deep-one that you have not guessed what you went to do in England."

"Pardon me," answered Julien. "I went there to dine once a week with
the king's ambassador, who is the most polite of men."

"You went to fetch this cross you see here," said the marquis to him.
"I do not want to make you leave off your black suit, and I have got
accustomed to the more amusing tone I have assumed with the man who
wears the blue suit. So understand this until further orders. When I
see this cross, you will be my friend, the Duke of Chaulne's younger
son, who has been employed in the diplomatic service the last six
months without having any idea of it. Observe," added the marquis
very seriously, cutting short all manifestations of thanks, "that I
do not want you to forget your place. That is always a mistake and a
misfortune both for patron and for dependent. When my lawsuits bore
you, or when you no longer suit me, I will ask a good living like that
of our good friend the abbe Pirard's for you, and nothing more," added
the marquis dryly. This put Julien's pride at its ease. He talked much
more. He did not so frequently think himself insulted and aimed at by
those phrases which are susceptible of some interpretation which is
scarcely polite, and which anybody may give utterance to in the course
of an animated conversation.

This cross earned him a singular visit. It was that of the baron de
Valenod, who came to Paris to thank the Minister for his barony, and
arrive at an understanding with him. He was going to be nominated mayor
of Verrieres, and to supersede M. de Renal.

Julien did not fail to smile to himself when M. Valenod gave him to
understand that they had just found out that M. de Renal was a Jacobin.
The fact was that the new baron was the ministerial candidate at the
election for which they were all getting ready, and that it was M. de
Renal who was the Liberal candidate at the great electoral college of
the department, which was, in fact, very ultra.

It was in vain that Julien tried to learn something about madame de
Renal. The baron seemed to remember their former rivalry, and was
impenetrable. He concluded by canvassing Julien for his father's vote
at the election which was going to take place. Julien promised to write.

"You ought, monsieur le Chevalier, to present me to M. the marquis de
la Mole."

"I ought, as a matter of fact," thought Julien. "But a rascal like
that!"

"As a matter of fact," he answered, "I am too small a personage in the
Hotel de la Mole to take it upon myself to introduce anyone." Julien
told the marquis everything. In the evening he described Valenod's
pretensions, as well as his deeds and feats since 1814.

"Not only will you present the new baron to me," replied de la Mole,
very seriously, "but I will invite him to dinner for the day after
to-morrow. He will be one of our new prefects."

"If that is the case, I ask for my father the post of director of the
workhouse," answered Julien, coldly.

"With pleasure," answered the marquis gaily. "It shall be granted. I
was expecting a lecture. You are getting on."

M. de Valenod informed Julien that the manager of the lottery office at
Verrieres had just died. Julien thought it humorous to give that place
to M. de Cholin, the old dotard whose petition he had once picked up in
de la Mole's room. The marquis laughed heartily at the petition, which
Julien recited as he made him sign the letter which requested that
appointment of the minister of finance.

M. de Cholin had scarcely been nominated, when Julien learnt that that
post had been asked by the department for the celebrated geometrician,
monsieur Gros. That generous man had an income of only 1400 francs, and
every year had lent 600 to the late manager who had just died, to help
him bring up his family.

Julien was astonished at what he had done.

"That's nothing," he said to himself. "It will be necessary to commit
several other injustices if I mean to get on, and also to conceal them
beneath pretty, sentimental speeches. Poor monsieur Gros! It is he who
deserves the cross. It is I who have it, and I ought to conform to the
spirit of the Government which gives it me."






Part 2, Chapter 7
The Marquis de La Mole tells Julien to go buy a new blue suit to wear around the house. It's only when he's wearing this suit that the marquis is able to treat him as an equal. When he's wearing his priest's black robes, the Marquis can't help but feel like they're different. The marquis is confined to his bed by an attack of gout. Julien visits him and entertains him with the story of how he came to fight a duel in Paris. The marquis gives Julien more and more responsibilities. He soon finds out that his financial advisors have been swindling him and hiding money from him. The marquis gives Julien the generous sum of 3,000 francs for helping him. When the marquis tries to give Julien another gift, Julien declines. This impresses the marquis. The marquis sends Julien to do some business in England. While there, Julien makes friends with a Russian nobleman named Prince Korasoff. Julien wants to meet some famous English philosopher, but then finds out that the guy is in jail for speaking his mind. When he gets back to France, the marquis scolds him for some political remarks he made to some foreign diplomats. Julien says that it wouldn't be good enough to make boring chitchat with these people. He had to say something substantial. The marquis gives Julien a special medal to wear around his neck whenever he's acting as the youngest son of the marquis' friend. When he's not wearing it, he'll just be the marquis' secretary. That'll help the marquis decide how to behave toward him. But to be sure, he wants Julien to know that this doesn't make him a nobleman. It's all just temporary. Monsieur Valenod from Verrieres visits the de La Mole house as the newly elected mayor of his town. It looks like he beat out Monsieur de Renal for the job. As a joke, Julien recommends a local imbecile for a posting in Verrieres. The marquis agrees that it would be a good joke and gives the man the position. Only later does Julien realize that he has kept a good, honorable man from getting the position. He feels guilty for toying with people's futures.