“I see three alternatives,” continued Julien.
“M. de la Mole can have me put to death,” and he mentioned the suicide letter which he had left with the Marquis; (2) “He can get Count Norbert to challenge me to a duel, and shoot at me point blank.”
“You would accept?” said the abbé furiously as he got up.
“You do not let me finish. I should certainly never fire upon my benefactor’s son. (3) He can send me away. If he says go to Edinburgh or New York, I will obey him. They can then conceal mademoiselle de la Mole’s condition, but I will never allow them to suppress my son.”
“Have no doubt about it, that will be the first thought of that depraved man.”
At Paris, Mathilde was in despair. She had seen her father about seven o’clock. He had shown her Julien’s letter. She feared that he might have considered it noble to put an end to his life; “and without my permission?” she said to herself with a pain due solely to her anger.
“If he dies I shall die,” she said to her father. “It will be you who will be the cause of his death.... Perhaps you will rejoice at it but I swear by his shades that I shall at once go into mourning, and shall publicly appear as Madame the widow Sorel, I shall send out my invitations, you can count on it.... You will find me neither pusillanimous nor cowardly.”
Her love went to the point of madness. M. de la Mole was flabbergasted in his turn.
He began to regard what had happened with a certain amount of logic. Mathilde did not appear at breakfast. The marquis felt an immense weight off his mind, and was particularly flattered when he noticed that she had said nothing to her mother.
Julien was dismounting from his horse. Mathilde had him called and threw herself into his arms almost beneath the very eyes of her chambermaid. Julien was not very appreciative of this transport. He had come away from his long consultation with the abbé Pirard in a very diplomatic and calculating mood. The calculation of possibilities had killed his imagination. Mathilde told him, with tears in her eyes, that she had read his suicide letter.