35 This odd-sounding name is an anagram of Julien Sorel. Stendhal was very fond of anagrams, which

"Am I turning into a coward!" he exclaimed to himself. "Forward march!" These words, so often recited during the old surgeon-major's battle stories, were heroic to Julien. He walked rapidly toward Monsieur de Rênal's house. But for all his noble resolutions, when he got within twenty paces of it he was gripped by an invincible timidity. The ironwork gate was open; to him it seemed magnificent, and he had to go in there. Julien was not the only one whose heart was troubled, as he arrived at the house. Madame de Rênal's extreme shyness was shaken by the thought of this stranger, who, by the very nature of his job, was going to find himself constantly with her and her children. She was in the habit of having her sons sleep in her room. That morning, the tears had flowed abundantly, seeing their little beds carried into the room that was now the tutor's. She could not persuade her husband to have the youngest child's bed, Stanislas-Xavier's,36 carried back into her room. Madame de Rênal carried feminine delicacy to an extreme. She fashioned for herself the most obnoxious of images, a gross and unkempt creature paid to snarl at her children, and all because he knew Latin, a barbarous language for the sake of which her sons were going to be flogged.