The beautiful Amanda reflected a little.
“I am watched. What you ask may compromise me. All the same, I will write my address on a card, which you will put on your parcel. Send it boldly to me.”
“My name is Julien Sorel,” said the young man. “I have neither relatives nor acquaintances at Besançon.”
“Ah, I understand,” she said joyfully. “You come to study law.”
“Alas, no,” answered Julien, “I am being sent to the Seminary.”
The most complete discouragement damped Amanda’s features. She called a waiter. She had courage now. The waiter poured out some coffee for Julien without looking at him.
Amanda was receiving money at the counter. Julien was proud of having dared to speak: a dispute was going on at one of the billiard tables. The cries and the protests of the players resounded over the immense hall, and made a din which astonished Julien. Amanda was dreamy, and kept her eyes lowered.
“If you like, Mademoiselle,” he said to her suddenly with assurance, “I will say that I am your cousin.”
This little air of authority pleased Amanda. “He’s not a mere nobody,” she thought. She spoke to him very quickly, without looking at him, because her eye was occupied in seeing if anybody was coming near the counter.
“I come from Genlis, near Dijon. Say that you are also from Genlis and are my mother’s cousin.”