“Having done this, but not earlier, mind you, you can, if his Excellency questions you, tell him about the meeting at which you are now going to be present.
“You will be prevented from boring yourself on the journey between Paris and the minister’s residence by the thought that there are people who would like nothing better than to fire a shot at M. the abbé Sorel. In that case that gentleman’s mission will be finished, and I see a great delay, for how are we to know of your death, my dear friend? Even your zeal cannot go to the length of informing us of it.
“Run straight away and buy a complete suit,” went on the marquis seriously. “Dress in the fashion of two years ago. To-night you must look somewhat badly groomed. When you travel, on the other hand, you will be as usual. Does this surprise you? Does your suspiciousness guess the secret? Yes, my friend, one of the venerable personages you are going to hear deliver his opinion, is perfectly capable of giving information as the result of which you stand a very good chance of being given at least opium some fine evening in some good inn where you will have asked for supper.”
“It is better,” said Julien, “to do an extra thirty leagues and not take the direct road. It is a case of Rome, I suppose....” The marquis assumed an expression of extreme haughtiness and dissatisfaction which Julien had never seen him wear since Bray-le-Haut.
“That is what you will know, monsieur, when I think it proper to tell you. I do not like questions.”
“That was not one,” answered Julien eagerly. “I swear, monsieur, I was thinking quite aloud. My mind was trying to find out the safest route.”
“Yes, it seems your mind was a very long way off. Remember that an emissary, and particularly one of your age should not appear to be a man who forces confidences.”
Julien was very mortified; he was in the wrong. His vanity tried to find an excuse and did not find one.
“You understand,” added monsieur de la Mole, “that one always falls back on one’s heart when one has committed some mistake.”
An hour afterwards Julien was in the marquis’s ante-chamber. He looked quite like a servant with his old clothes, a tie of a dubious white, and a certain touch of the usher in his whole appearance. The marquis burst out laughing as he saw him, and it was only then that Julien’s justification was complete.