We walked back toward Russell Street. Rosely asked further questions about my mother’s condition that I did not know the answers to, and then suddenly, as we neared the car and she realised she was in the immediate vicinity of D24 for the second time that day, she began to grasp the impossible truth.
“How did you know where I was?” she asked.
“It was hard to believe you would have been anywhere else...” I said evasively.
    I wondered if I should try and cushion the blow, to take the flack rather than allow her to make a scene at the hospital when Horrie got stuck into her. It would be better, I knew, if she knew what to expect. But I could not find the way to say it.
“Oh great,” Rosely sighed. “I suppose you blabbed to mum and dad, like you always do?”
Now I was caught firmly on the horns and it was a choice between catastrophes. It seemed that, since she was going to hate me anyway, it might as well be on account of the facts.
“No. They already know. They saw you on telly.”

At that moment, the young clerk who was serving mass rang the bell for the Elevation. Madame de Renal bowed her head which for a moment was almost entirely concealed by the folds of her shawl. Her aspect was less familiar to Julien; he fired a shot at her with one pistol and missed her, he fired a second shot; and she fell.
    Surely the most colourlessly described climax in the entire history of great literature. I suppose it must be in the translation, but I find it hard to understand why Scarlet and Black by Stendhal is regarded as a great book. It seems a fairly routine handling of the theme of a man who murders the woman he loves and finds guilt overwhelming him. It’s good, but nowhere near as good as Dostoyevsky, and quite readable but mostly the author wanders off on boring asides which are supposed to express his philosophies but to me just seemed to be ravings. Here was a man who supported Napoleon—maybe that’s why I was completely unable to take anything he had to say seriously. As Charlie Brown put it—it’s a good book, it’s just not a great book.