Read The Red and the Black for Free Online Page A

mayor-was bold enough one
day to complain to his worship about the way these fine trees were
being periodically mutilated.
    'I like
shade,' replied M. de Rênal with the right degree of aloofness for
addressing a surgeon who is a Member of the Legion of Honour. * 'I like shade, and I have my trees pruned to give shade; I can see no other use for a tree when, unlike the serviceable walnut, it doesn't bring in any money .'
    BRINGING IN MONEY: this is the key phrase which settles everything in Verrières. It sums
up the habitual thinking of more than three-quarters of its
inhabitants.
    Bringing in money is the consideration which settles every-
    -8-

thing in this little town you found so pretty. The newcomer who
decides to visit it, won over by the beauty of the cool, deep valleys
round about, imagines to begin with that its inhabitants appreciate
what is beautiful. They are always talking about the beauty of the
locality, and it is undeniable that they value it highly; but this is
because it attracts a number of travellers from elsewhere with the
means to line the innkeepers' pockets, and thereby, through local
taxes, to bring money to the town .
    On a fine morning in autumn, M. de Rênal was strolling along the
Avenue de la Fidélité with his wife on his arm. While listening to her
husband solemnly talking away, M me de Rênal was keeping an
anxious eye on the activities of three small boys. The eldest, who
might have been eleven, kept on going over to the wall, far too often
for her liking, and making as if to climb on to it. A gentle voice was
then heard calling 'Adolphe', and the boy had to abandon his daring
venture. M me de Rênal looked about thirty, but was still a rather pretty woman.
    'He might well come to regret it, this fine gentleman from Paris,' M.
de Rênal was saying. He looked indignant, and his face was paler than
usual. 'It isn't as though I had no friends at Court. . .'
    But although I do wish to spend two hundred pages telling you about
the provinces, I shall not be uncivilized enough to subject you to the
long-windedness and deliberately roundabout ways of a provincial dialogue.
    This fine gentleman from Paris, so loathsome to the mayor of Verrières, was none other than a M. Appert * who had succeeded two days previously not merely in getting inside
the prison and the workhouse in Verrères, but also the hospital
which was run as a charity by the mayor and the chief landowners of
the neighbourhood.
    'But what harm can this gentleman from Paris do you,' M me de Rênal asked timidly, 'since you're most scrupulously honest in administering what is given to the poor?'
    'His only reason for coming is to apportion blame, and then he'll get articles written in newspapers with liberal leanings.'
    -9-

'You never read them, my dear.'
    'But people gossip about these radical articles; it's all very distracting for us, and it prevents us from going about our good works . 1 For my part I shall never forgive the priest.'
____________________
1
This is a historical fact. [ Stendhal's note.]
    -10-

CHAPTER 3
Care of the poor
A virtuous priest who is a stranger to intrigue is a godsend to any village.
    FLEURY *
    You should know that the priest of Verrières, an old man of eighty
who none the less had a constitution and character of iron, thanks to
the invigorating mountain air, was entitled to visit the prison, the
hospital and even the workhouse at any hour of the day or night. It
was precisely at six o'clock in the morning that M. Appert, bearing an
introduction from Paris to the priest, had had the wisdom to turn up
in an inquisitive little town. He had gone straight to the presbytery.
    Reading the letter addressed to him
by the Marquis de la Mole, a peer of France and the richest landowner
in the provinces, Father Chélan remained plunged in thought.
    'I'm old and well loved here,' he said to himself under his breath,
'they wouldn't dare!' Turning at once to the gentleman from