Chapter summary
Mathilde de La Mole wrote after struggling against pride and against the fear of dishonor, and she fears above all displeasing Julien Sorel. To force the outcome, Julien has a heavy trunk lowered at night to the entrance of the house, to make her believe he has left; in the morning he hands over the reply, and she refuses to hear him and flees. Julien then writes a second reply, mocking, announcing his departure, which Mathilde receives on the stairs with laughing eyes. At five o'clock she throws him a note: "I must speak to you: I must speak to you tonight [...] Take the gardener's big ladder by the well; set it against my window and climb up to my room."
Analysis
Mathilde invites Julien to her room after his second reply, mocking and announcing his departure. Threatened with losing the man she has chosen, she moves from fear of displeasing him to the risk that he will go away. The note is the gesture of someone who prefers solitary danger to regret, and the same courage she demanded of the suitors is now demanded of her.
Ch. XIV. Mathilde, on the courage of the suitors: They face danger at the head of a brilliant squadron of steel, but what of solitary, singular, unforeseen danger, truly base?
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