Chapter summary
In the evening, Mathilde de La Mole reassembles the circle of Croisenois, Luz and Caylus around the blue sofa and avoids the garden, which reminds her of Julien Sorel, to whom no one speaks in the salon. One morning, at seven, she enters the library after learning that he wanted to speak with her, and declares that she no longer loves him, humiliating him with calculated contempt while he tries in vain to justify himself.
The next day, while fetching a rare pamphlet for Madame de La Mole, Julien knocks over an old blue porcelain vase, a Japanese antiquity of the family, and, in front of Mathilde, reads it as an image of his own love.
Analysis
Mathilde reassembles the circle of young men and tells Julien she no longer loves him because, after yielding twice, she wants to recover possession of herself: calculated contempt is her way of placing herself above him again. Julien answers with the vase because he finds in an accident the way to say that he no longer loves her, which is not true, without humbling himself again.
Julien to Mathilde, before the broken vase: It is destroyed forever, just as the feeling that once reigned in my heart; I beg you to accept my apologies for all the follies it led me to commit
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