A Civil Servant's Sorrows
- Two days after their first visit, the de Rênals return to Verrières. This time, Madame acts aloof towards Julien, who wonders if there is some other new man in her life.
- Julien soon finds out that Madame and her husband have been discussing an old mansion in Verrières that's about to go up for public auction.
- Julien attends the auction. The old mansion gets rented to a friend of Monsieur de Rênals, and for some reason, everyone in the room looks at Julien as though he has conspired to help his boss rent the house to the man he wants.
- The truth is, though, that the house has gone to a man for a price that Monsieur de Rênal doesn't approve of.
- When he gets back to Julien's place, he sends Julien back home to the de Rênal house with the children.
- A man shows up at the door named Signor Géronimo. He delivers a letter to Monsieur de Rênal and stays for dinner. He's a really charming and funny man, and he quickly improves the spirits of everyone in the house.
- Julien thinks about how much he'd rather be a travelling singer than someone like Monsieur de Rênal.
- Meanwhile, the whole town of Verrières gossips about Madame de Rênal's affair with Julien.
- Hearing this, Father Chélan summons Julien and tells him to leave Verrières for a year. His options are to go into business with his buddy Fouqé or to go to a seminary to study to become a priest.
- Julien visits Madame again before leaving. She gives him a lock of her hair and begs him to make sure her children turn out well if she ever dies.
- Julien promises Madame that three days after he leaves, he'll come back at night to visit her. And yes, we're talking about a sexy rendezvous here.
- Monsieur Rênal gets a moment alone with Madame and tells her he can't take it anymore. He's going to the casino to throw the anonymous letters about Madame in Monsieur Valenod's face. Madame is worried that the two will have a duel and one will die. Worse yet, she'll be responsible.
- She convinces her husband that he actually needs to be nicer to Valenod than ever. They also decide that the best thing for Julien is for him to leave town and go into a priest's seminary in the nearby town of Besançon.
- The next day, Monsieur de Rênal gets another insulting anonymous letter.
- Julien agrees to go into the seminary instead of taking a job with Valenod.
- Madame falls into depression at the thought that she won't see Julien again. She is emotionally cold the last time they see one another.