Page:The red and the black (1916).djvu/340

320 of the difficulty to be overcome and the black uncertainty of the result."

Mademoiselle de la Mole was so engrossed in these pretty arguments that without realising what she was doing, she praised Julien to the marquis de Croisenois and her brother on the following day. Her eloquence went so far that it provoked them.

"You be careful of this young man who has so much energy," exclaimed her brother; "if we have another revolution he will have us all guillotined."

She was careful not to answer, but hastened to rally her brother and the marquis de Croisenois on the apprehension which energy caused them. "It is at bottom simply the fear of meeting the unexpected, the fear of being non-plussed in the presence of the unexpected—"

"Always, always, gentlemen, the fear of ridicule, a monster which had the misfortune to die in 1816."

"Ridicule has ceased to exist in a country where there are two parties," M. de la Mole was fond of saying,

His daughter had understood the idea.

"So, gentlemen," she would say to Julien's enemies, "you will be frightened all your life and you will be told afterwards, {{c|Ce n'était pas un loup, ce n'en était que l'ombre."

Matilde soon left them. Her brother's words horrified her; they occasioned her much anxiety, but the day afterwards she regarded them as tantamount to the highest praise.

"His energy frightens them in this age where all energy is dead. I will tell him my brother's phrase. I want to see what answer he will make. But I will choose one of the moments when his eyes are shining. Then he will not be able to lie to me.

"He must be a Danton! she added after a long and vague reverie. Well, suppose the revolution begins again, what figures will Croisenois and my brother cut then? It is settled in advance: Sublime resignation. They will be heroic sheep who will allow their throats to be cut without saying a word. Their one fear when they die will still be the fear of being bad form. If a Jacobin came to arrest my little Julien he would blow his brains out, however small a chance he had of escaping. He is not frightened of doing anything in bad form." {{nop}}