« La race de ceux qui font les convenances »

« La race de ceux qui font les convenances » is a phrase that sets self-created propriety against the mechanical imitation of social rules. In the encounter between Félicien de la Vierge and the deaf woman, it frames their conduct as an expression of mutual recognition rather than submission to convention.

Meaning and Formulation

The phrase draws a distinction between those who make conventions and those who undergo or obey them. The narration expands that distinction into a criticism of what people ordinarily call propriety: public customs are described as servile imitations of practices once adopted, vaguely and in general circumstances, by beings of a higher nature. Convention is therefore not presented as inherently authoritative; its value depends on whether it answers to the particular situation.

Use in the Encounter

The idea is applied to Félicien de la Vierge and the woman after she responds to his emotional appeal. She says that she is not offended and invites him to regard her as a friend. The narration then presents the moment as one in which both should remember that they belong, if worthy of it, to the kind who make conventions rather than submit to them. Félicien kisses the hand she offers and asks for the flower she has worn in her hair throughout the evening.

Narrative Significance

The phrase makes the exchange’s departure from ordinary propriety reciprocal rather than unilateral: the woman has explicitly welcomed friendship, and the narration treats the pair as jointly responsible for judging what the occasion permits. Its elevated language also links their conduct to an ideal of exceptional feeling, setting their encounter against the impersonal, imitative rules of the wider human public.