Chapter summary
Around midnight, Julien Sorel tells Madame de Rênal that her husband must have read an anonymous letter and that they will not see each other that night. She, thinking the warning is a pretext to avoid her, still goes to his door at the usual hour. The next morning the cook hands him a book with an inscription in Italian telling him to look at page 130, where there is a letter from her, written in haste and full of spelling mistakes. In it Madame de Rênal says she will tell her husband that she herself received an anonymous letter, proposes that Julien settle in Verrières and make friends with everyone, and dictates the plan: the anonymous letter will be his, made of words cut from a book and pasted on bluish paper from Valenod's house, so that her husband will believe the author of the first letter is the rival. She also arranges a signal, a white handkerchief on the dovecote.
Analysis
Madame de Rênal, who took the warning as a pretext of Julien's to avoid her, goes to his door at the usual hour: the fear of losing him wins over the fear of being discovered. The next day she writes in haste, with spelling mistakes, the plan of a second letter, because the threat has changed and only a well-built lie protects them both.
Madame de Rênal ceases to be a passive character and becomes the strategist of her own survival: The only aim of my conduct is to make my husband think the letter comes from Mr. Valenod
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