Chapter summary
Élisa, the maid, receives an inheritance and tells the curé Abbé Chélan that she wants to marry Julien Sorel. Julien tells the curé the proposal does not suit him, and Chélan warns him that, being a priest, he will have to choose between making a fortune in this world or in the next. Three days later Julien, to justify the refusal, invents a slander against her. Hearing from Élisa that Julien rejects her, Madame de Rênal nearly loses her reason from so much happiness, defends the rival's cause for an hour and, after falling ill, asks herself whether she loves Julien. At Vergy, where Rênal installs the family in the spring, she and Julien lay a sand path under the walnut trees, hunt butterflies with the children, and receive her cousin, Madame Derville. On warm nights under the linden, Julien touches Madame de Rênal's hand, which she withdraws quickly, and he decides it is his duty to make sure she no longer withdraws it.
Analysis
Julien refuses Élisa before Chélan tells him that, being a priest, he will have to choose the fortune of this world or that of the next. The curé reads the refusal as a vocation, and marrying the girl would mean giving up the cassock and what it promises. The slander he invents against her shuts the door without a trace and shows that he has already chosen; he only looks for a way not to pay the price.
Ch. VIII. When Julien refuses to marry Élisa, the maid: Madame de Rênal no longer heard anything; the excess of happiness almost deprived her of the use of reason. She made the girl confirm several times that Julien had rejected her definitively and would not reconsider that most sensible resolution.
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