CHAPTER TEN

Might He Be a Danton?

Julien and I have no agreement to be married, and there are no lawyers, Mathilde thought. Everything is heroic, just like Queen Marguerite and Boniface de la Mole.

She was thinking about this, and she said nice things about Julien to her brother and father. Count Norbert was surprised and said, "Watch out for that young man who has so much energy. If the revolution starts up again, he'll have us all guillotined."

Her brother's words worried Mathilde. He'd be a Danton, she thought. My brother and Marquis de Croisenois would die quietly, but Julien would shoot anyone who tried to take him to the guillotine. He's not afraid of looking bad.

Count Norbert, Marquis de Croisenois, and Mr de Luz, her brother's friend, all made jokes about Julien. Mathilde noticed that whenever they said something clever, they all looked to Julien first. One day they talked to her about Julien. Mathilde said, "If one day he discovered he had a noble as his real father, in six months he would be an army officer just like you."

Mathilde was bored except when she was talking with Julien. She congratulated herself on choosing to be in love with him. It was good that it was dangerous.

Julien did not know any of this, but he did see Mathilde look at him with her beautiful eyes. Is this love? He thought again. It's so different from the way Mrs de Rênal looked at me.

(end of section)