Chapter summary
Julien Sorel gives himself up to happiness only when Mathilde de La Mole cannot read his gaze, and he keeps the rule of saying her a harsh word from time to time. She, who for the first time is in love, is submissive with him and ever haughtier with everyone else. She discovers that she is pregnant and, out of honor, wants to tell her father. Julien, frightened, manages with an order to have her postpone the letter until the following Tuesday. He confesses to Mathilde that what he fears most is being separated from her, and she is happy to judge that, of the two, she is the one who loves more. On Tuesday, the Marquis de La Mole finds at midnight an eight-page letter addressed to an impulsive man, in which his daughter takes the blame for having seduced the young man and proposes living with him in Switzerland as Madame Sorel. While Julien wonders what the marquis would write to prescribe his conduct, the valet hurries to call him: the marquis is beside himself.
Analysis
Mathilde wants to tell her father out of honor, the same honor that made her summon Julien to her room by the gardener's ladder. Hiding would be cowardice, and the letter in which she takes the blame for seducing the young man is the gesture of someone who chooses scandal. Julien has her postpone it, frightened by the idea of being expelled and separated from her. She is happy to hear him say he fears being separated, and sees in it proof that he loves her.
The chapter opens with the image that gives it its name: Julien lives with a passion he himself created, and keeps it docile only with a loaded pistol on the table, which is calculated coldness.
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