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diff --git a/27575-8.txt b/27575-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35a1de3 --- /dev/null +++ b/27575-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9890 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame Bovary, Volume 1 (of 2) +by Gustave Flaubert + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Madame Bovary + A Tale of Provincial Life, Volume 1 (of 2) + +Author: Gustave Flaubert + +Release Date: December 20, 2008 [EBook #27575] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME BOVARY *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's note: Minor printing errors have been corrected. + Phrases printed in italics in the original version are + indicated in this electronic version by _ (underscore). + A list of amendments are given at the end of the book. + + + + + + MADAME BOVARY + + A TALE OF PROVINCIAL LIFE + + BY + GUSTAVE FLAUBERT + + + WITH A + CRITICAL INTRODUCTION + BY + FERDINAND BRUNETIÈRE + Of the French Academy + + AND A BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE BY + ROBERT ARNOT, M. A + + VOLUME I. + + SIMON P. MAGEE, PUBLISHER, + CHICAGO, ILL. + COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY + M. WALTER DUNNE + + + + +Entered at Stationers' Hall, London + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I. + + I. THE NEW BOY 1 + + II. A GOOD PATIENT 13 + + III. A LONELY WIDOWER 23 + + IV. CONSOLATION 31 + + V. THE NEW MÉNAGE 38 + + VI. A MAIDEN'S YEARNINGS 43 + + VII. DISILLUSION 50 + + VIII. GLIMPSES OF THE WORLD 58 + + IX. IDLE DREAMS 71 + +PART II. + + I. A NEW FIELD 85 + + II. NEW FRIENDS 98 + + III. ADDED CARES 107 + + IV. SILENT HOMAGE 121 + + V. SMOTHERED FLAMES 126 + + VI. SPIRITUAL COUNSEL 138 + + VII. A WOMAN'S WHIMS 154 + + VIII. A VILLAGE FESTIVAL 165 + + IX. A WOODLAND IDYLL 193 + + X. LOVERS' VOWS 206 + + XI. AN EXPERIMENT AND A FAILURE 217 + + XII. PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT 233 + + XIII. DESERTED 251 + + XIV. RELIGIOUS FERVOR 264 + + XV. A NEW DELIGHT 278 + + + + +CRITICAL INTRODUCTION + + +_Domi mansit, lanam fecit:_ "He remained at home and wrote," is the +first thing that should be said of Gustave Flaubert. This trait, which +he shares with many of the writers of his generation,--Renan, Taine, +Leconte de Lisle and Dumas _fils_,--distinguishes them and distinguishes +him from those of the preceding generation, who voluntarily sought +inspiration in disorder and agitation,--Balzac and George Sand, for +instance (to speak only of romance writers), and the elder Dumas or +Eugène Sue. Flaubert, indeed, had no "outward life;" he lived only for +his art. + +A second trait of his character, and of his genius as a writer, is that +of seeing in his art only the art itself--and art alone, without the +mingling of any vision of fortune or success. A competency,--which he +had inherited from the great surgeon, his father,--and moderate tastes, +infinitely more _bourgeois_ than his literature,--permitted him to shun +the great stumbling-block of the professional man of letters, which, in +our day, and doubtless in the United States as well as in France, is the +temptation to coin money with the pen. Never was writer more +disinterested than Flaubert; and the story is that _Madame Bovary_ +brought him 300 francs--in debts. + +A third trait, which helps not only to characterise but to individualise +him, is his subordination not only of his own existence, but of life in +general, to his conception of art. It is not enough to say that he lived +for his art: he saw nothing in the world or in life but material for +that art,--_Hostis quid aliud quam perpetua materia gloriæ?_--and if it +be true that others have died of their ambition, it could literally be +said of Flaubert that he was killed by his art. + +It is this point that I should like to bring out in this +Introduction,--where we need not speak of his Norman origin, or (as his +friend Ducamp has written in his _Literary Souvenirs_ with a +disagreeable persistence, and so uselessly!) of his nervousness and +epilepsy; of his loves or his friendships, but solely of his work. We +know, in fact, to-day, that if all such details are made clear in the +biography of a great writer, in no way do they explain his work. The +author of _Gil Blas_, Alain René Lesage, was a Breton, like the author +of _Atala_; the Corneille brothers had almost nothing in common. Of all +our great writers, the one nearest, perhaps, to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, +who died a victim to delirium from persecution, was Madame Sand, who +had, without doubt, the sanest and best balanced temperament. + +Other writers have sought,--for instance, our great classical authors, +Pascal, Bossuet and perhaps Corneille,--to influence the thought of +their time; some, like Molière, La Fontaine, and La Bruyère, to correct +customs. Others still,--such as our romantic writers, Hugo or De +Musset,--desired only to express their personal conception of the world +and of life. And then Balzac, whose object,--almost scientific,--was to +make a "natural history," a study and description, of the social +species, as an animal or vegetable species is described in zoology or +botany. Gustave Flaubert attempted only to work out his art, for and +through the love of art. Very early in life, as we clearly see from his +correspondence, his consideration for art was not even that of a social +but of a _sacred_ function, in which the artist was the priest. We hear +sometimes, in metaphor and not without irony, of the "priesthood" of the +artist and the "worship" of art. These expressions must be taken +literally in Flaubert's case. He was cloistered in his art as a monk in +his convent or by his discipline; and he truly lived only in meditation +upon that art, as a Mystic in contemplation of the perfections of his +God. Nothing outside of art truly interested him, neither science, nor +things political or religious, nor men, nor women, nor anything in the +world; and if, sometimes, it was his duty to occupy himself with them, +it was never in a degree greater than could benefit his art. "The +accidents of the world"--this is his own expression--appeared to him +only as things permitted _for the sake of description_, so much so that +his own existence, even, seemed to him to have no other excuse. + +It is that which explains the mixture of "romanticism," "naturalism," +and I will add, of "classicism"--which has been pointed out more than +once in Flaubert's work. _Madame Bovary_ is the masterpiece of +naturalistic romance and has not been surpassed by the studies of Zola +or the stories of De Maupassant. On the other hand, there is nothing in +Hugo, even, more romantic than _The Temptation of Saint Antony_. But it +is necessary to look for many things in romanticism; and the romanticism +of Hugo, which was one of the delights of Flaubert, did not resemble +that of De Musset, (Lord de Musset, as Flaubert called him) which he +strongly disliked. What he loved in romanticism was the "colour," and +nothing but the colour. He loved the romanticism of the Orientals, of +Hugo and Chateaubriand, that plastic romanticism, whose object is to +substitute in literature "sensations of art" for the "expression of +ideas," or even of sentiments. It is precisely here that naturalism and +romanticism--or at least French naturalism, which is very different from +that of the Russians or the English--join hands. In the one case, as in +the other, the attempt is made to "represent"--as he himself puts it; +and when one represents nothing except the vulgar, the common, the +mediocre, the everyday, commonplace, or grotesque, he is a "naturalist," +like the author of _Madame Bovary_; but one is a "romanticist" when, +like the author of _Salammbô_, he makes this world vanish, and recreates +a strange land filled with Byzantine or Carthaginian civilization, with +its barbaric luxury, its splendour of corruption, immoderate appetites, +and monstrous deities. + +We have done wrong in considering Flaubert a naturalist impeded by his +romanticism, or a romanticist impenitent, irritated with himself because +of his tendency to naturalism. He was both naturalist and romanticist. +And in both he was an artist, so much of an artist (I say this without +fear of contradiction) that he saw nothing in his art but +"representation," the telling of the truth in all its depth and +fidelity. _Les Fileuses_ and _La Reddition de Bréda_ are always by +Velasquez; but the genius of the painter has nothing in common with the +subject he has chosen or the circumstances that inspired him. + +From this source proceeds that insensibility in Flaubert with which he +has so often been reproached, not without reason, and which divides his +naturalism from that of the author of _Adam Bede_ or that of the author +of _Anna Karenina_ by an abyss. Honest, as a man, a good citizen, a good +son, a good brother, a good friend, Flaubert was indifferent, as an +artist, to all that did not belong to his art. "I believe that it is +necessary to love nothing," he has written somewhere, and even +underscored it--that is to say, it is necessary to hover impartially +above all objective points. And, in fact, as nothing passed before his +eyes that he considered did not lie within the possibility of +representation, he made it a law unto himself to look nothing in the +face except from this point of view. + +In this regard one may compare his attitude in the presence of his model +to that of his contemporaries, Renan, for example, or Taine, in the +presence of the object of their studies. With them also critical +impartiality resembles not only indifference but insensibility. Not only +have they refused to confound their emotions with their judgments, but +their judgments have no value in their eyes except as they separate them +from their emotions,--as they emancipate themselves from them or even +place themselves in opposition to them. In like manner did Flaubert. The +first condition of an exact representation of things is to dominate +them; and in order to dominate them, is it not necessary to begin by +detaching yourself from them? We see dimly through tears, and we are +too much absorbed in that which gives us pleasure to be good judges of +it. "An ideal society would be one where each individual performed his +duty according to his ability. Now, then, I do my duty as best I can; +I am forsaken.... No one pities my misfortunes; those of others +occupy their attention! I give to humanity what it gives to +me--_indifference!_" Is not the link between Flaubert's "indifference" +and his conception of art evident here? + +But Flaubert said besides: "Living does not concern me! It is only +necessary to shun suffering." Should we not change the name of this to +"egotism" or "insensibility?" We might, indeed, did we not know that +this egotism germinated in Flaubert as a means of discipline. The object +of this discipline was to concentrate, for the profit of his art, those +qualities or forces which the ordinary man dissipates in the pursuit of +useless pleasures, or squanders in intensity of life. + +We may take account at the same time of the nature of his pessimism. For +there are many ways of being a pessimist, and Flaubert's was not at all +like that of Schopenhauer or Leopardi. His pessimism, real and sincere, +proceeded neither from personally grievous experiences of life, as did +that of the recluse of Recanati, nor from a philosophic or logical view +of the conditions of existence in which humanity is placed, like the +pessimism of the Frankfort philosopher. Flaubert was rather a victim of +what Théophile Gautier, in his well-known _Emaux et Camées_, calls by +the singularly happy name of "the Luminous Spleen of the Orient." To +tell the truth, what Flaubert could not pardon in humanity was that it +did not make enough of art, and so his pessimism was a consequence of +his æstheticism. "As lovers of the beautiful," he tells us, "we are all +outlaws! Humanity hates us; we do not serve it; we hate it because it +wounds us! Let us love, then, in art, as the Mystics love their God; and +let all pale before this love." + +These lines are dated 1853, before he had published anything. Therefore, +Flaubert did not express himself thus because he was not successful. His +self-love was not in question! No one had yet criticised or discussed +him. But he felt that his ideal of art, an art which he could not +renounce, was opposed to the ideal methods, if they are ideal, held by +his contemporaries; and the vision of the combats that he must face at +once exalted and exasperated him. His pessimism was of the élite, or +rather the minority of one who feels himself, or at least believes +himself to be, superior, and who, knowing well that he will always be in +the minority, fears, and rightly too, that he will not be recognised. It +is a form of pessimism less rare in our day than one would think, and +Taine, among others, said practically the same thing when he averred +that "one writes only for one or two hundred people in Europe, or in the +world." It may be that this is too individual a case! A more liberal +estimate would be that we write for all those who can comprehend us; +that style has for its first object the increase of such a number; and, +after that, if there still be those who cannot comprehend us, no reason +for despair exists on our part or on theirs. + +Let us follow, now, the consequences of this principle in Flaubert's +work, and see successively all that his work means, and the dogma of +art which proceeds from it. + +At first you are tempted to believe that Flaubert's work is diverse, +though inconsiderable in volume; and, primarily do not see clearly the +threads which unite the _Education Sentimentale_ with the _Tentation de +Saint Antoine_ or _Salammbô_ with _Madame Bovary_. + +On the one side Christian Egypt, and on the other the France of 1848, +Madame Arnoux, Rosanette, and Frederick Moreau, the Orleanist carnival, +and the "underwood" of Fontainebleau. Here, Carthage, Hamilcar, +Hannibal, Narr' Havas, the Numidian hero, and Spendius, the Greek slave, +the lions in bondage, the pomegranate trees which they sprinkled with +silphium, the whole a strange and barbaric world; then Charles Bovary, +the chemist Homais, his son Napoléon and his daughter Athalie, +provincial life in the time of the Second Empire; _bourgeois_ adultery, +_diligences_ and notaries' clerks. Then again Herodias, Salome, Saint +Jean-Baptiste, or Saint Julien l'Hospitalier, the middle ages and +antiquity,--all, at first sight, seem far removed, one from the other. +At first one must admire, in such a contrast of subjects and colors, the +extraordinary skill, let us say the _virtuosité_, of the artist. But, if +we look more closely, we shall not be slow to perceive that no work is +more homogeneous than that of Flaubert, and that, in truth, the +_Education Sentimentale_, differs from _Salammbô_ only as a Kermesse of +Rubens, for example, or a Bacchante of Poussin differs from the +apotheoses or the Church pictures of the painters themselves. The making +is the same, and you immediately recognise the hand. The difference is +in the choice of subjects, which is of no importance, since Flaubert is +only attempting to "represent" something, and in the choice of material, +when he is "representing," he is no longer free. That is the reason why, +if one seek for lessons in "naturalism" in _Salammbô_, he will find +them, and will also find all the "romanticism" he seeks in the +_Education Sentimentale_ and in _Madame Bovary_. + +From the other lessons that flow from this work, I find some in +rhetoric, in art, in invention, in composition, and two or three of +great import, eloquent in their bearing upon the history of contemporary +French literature. + +A master does not mingle or engage his personality in his subject; but, +as a God creates from the height of his serenity, without passion, if +without love, so the poet or the artist expands the thing he touches, +and, on each occasion, brings to bear upon it all the faculties that are +his by toil but not innate. Nothing is demanded of the workers, and they +make no confessions or confidences. Literature and art are not, nor +should be, the expression of men's emotions, and still less the history +of their lives. That is the reason why, while from reading _René_, for +example, or _Fraziella_, _Delphine_, _Corinne_, _Adolphe_, _Indiana_, +_Volupté_, or some of the romances of Balzac--_La Muse du Departement_, +or _Un Grand Homme de Province à Paris_,--you could induct Balzac's +entire psychology, or Sainte-Beuve's, or Madame Sand's, Benjamin +Constant's, Madame de Staël's or Chateaubriand's, you would find in +_Madame Bovary_ or _Salammbô_ nothing of Flaubert, except his +temperament, his taste, and his ideals as an artist. Let us suppose +another Flaubert, who did not live at Rouen, whose life is not that +related in his correspondence, who was not the friend of Maxime Ducamp +or of Louise Colet, and the _Education Sentimentale_ or the _Tentation +de Saint Antoine_ would not be in the least different from what they are +now, nor should we see one line of change to be made. This is a triumph +in objective art. "I do not wish to consider art as an overflow of +passion," he wrote once, a little brutally. "I love my little niece as +if she were my daughter, and I am sufficiently active in her behalf to +prove that these are not empty phrases. But may I be flayed alive rather +than exploit that kind of thing in style!" It has been but a short +hundred years since, as he expressed it, romanticism "exploited its +emotions in style," and made art from the heart. + +"Ah! strike upon the heart, 'tis there that genius lies!" But, for a +whole generation, _Madame Bovary_, _Salammbô_ and _Education +Sentimentale_ have been teaching the contrary. "The author in his work +should be like God in the universe, everywhere present but nowhere +visible. Art being second nature, the creator of this nature should act +through analogous procedure. He must be felt in each atom, under every +aspect, concealed but infinite; the effect upon the spectator should be +a kind of amazement." Furthermore, he remarks that this principle was +the core of Greek art. I know not, or at least I do not recall, whether +he had observed (as he should, since Anglo-Saxons have been quick to +notice it) that this "principle" underlies the art of Shakespeare. + +To realize this principle in work you must proceed scientifically, and, +in this connection, we may notice that Flaubert's idea is that of +Leconte de Lisle in the preface to his _Poèmes Antiques_, and of Taine +in his lectures upon _L'Idéal dans l'art_. + +Romanticism had confounded the picturesque with the anecdotal; character +with accident; colour with oddity. _Han d'Islande_, _Nôtre-Dame de +Paris_ and some romances of Balzac, the first and poorest, not signed +with his name, may serve as an example. The classic writers on their +side, had not always distinguished very profoundly the difference +between the general and the universal, the principal and the accessory, +the permanent and the superficial. We see this in the French comedies of +the eighteenth century, even in some of Molière's--in his _L'Avare_ and +his _Le Misanthrope_, for example. Flaubert believed that a means of +terminating this conflict is to be found in method; and that is the +reason why, if we confine ourselves wholly to the consideration of the +medium in his works, we shall find the _Tentation de Saint Antoine_ +entirely romantic; while, as a retaliation, nothing is more classic than +_Madame Bovary_. + +The reason for this is, that in his subject, whatever it was, +Carthaginian or low Norman, refined or _bourgeois_, modern or antique, +he saw only the subject itself, with the eyes and after the manner of a +naturalist, who is concerned only in knowing thoroughly the plant or the +animal under observation. There is no sentiment in botany or in +chemistry, and in them the desideratum is truth. Singleness of aim is +the primary virtue in a _savant_. Things are what they are, and we +demand of him that he show them to us as they are. We accuse him of +lying if he disguises, weakens, alters or embellishes them. + +Likewise the artist! His function is ever to "represent:" and in order +to accomplish this, he should, like the savant, mirror only the facts. +After this, what do the names "romanticism" or "classicism" signify? +Their sole use is to indicate the side taken; they are, so to speak, an +acknowledgment that the writer is adorning the occurrence he is about to +represent. He may make it more universal or more characteristic than +nature! But, inversely, if all art is concentrated upon the +representation, what matters the subject? Is one animal or plant more +interesting than another to the naturalist? Does a name matter? All +demand the same attention. Art can make exception in its subjects no +more than science. + +If we ask in what consists the difference between science and art, on +this basis, Flaubert, with Leconte de Lisle and with Taine, will tell us +that it is in the beauty which communicates prestige to the work, or in +the power of form. + +"What I have just written might be taken for something of Paul de +Kock's, had I not given it a profoundly literary form," wrote Flaubert, +while he was at work on _Madame Bovary_; "but how, out of trivial +dialogue, produce style? Yet it is absolutely necessary! It must be +done!" He went further still, and persuaded himself that style had a +value in itself, intrinsic and absolute, aside from the subject. In +fact, if the subject had no importance of its own, and if there were no +personal motives for choosing one subject rather than another, what +reason would there be for writing _Madame Bovary_ or _Salammbô_? One +alone: and that to "make something out of nothing," to produce a work of +art from things of no import. For though everyone has some ideas, and +everyone has had experience in some kind of life, it is given to few to +be able to express their experience or their ideas in terms of beauty. +This, precisely, is the goal of art. + +Form, then, is the great preoccupation of the artist, since, if he is an +artist, it is through form, and in the perfection or originality of that +form, that his triumph comes. Nothing stands out from the general +mediocrity except by means of form; nothing becomes concrete, assuming +immortality, save through form. Form in art is queen and sovereign. Even +truth makes itself felt only through the attractiveness of form. And +further, we cannot part one from the other; they are not opposed to each +other; they are at one; and art in every phase consists only in this +union. It is the end of art to give the superior life of form to that +which has it not; and finally, this superior life of form, this magic +wand of style, rhythmic as verse and terse as science, by firmly +establishing the thing it touches, withdraws it from that law of change, +constant in its inconstancy, which is the miserable condition of +existence. + + All passes; art in its strength + Alone remains to all eternity; + The bust + Survives the city. + +This it is that makes up the charm, the social dignity, and the lasting +grandeur of art. + +This is not the place to discuss the "æsthetic" quality, and I shall +content myself with indicating briefly some of the objections it has +called forth. + +Has form indeed all the importance in literature that Flaubert claimed +for it? And what importance has it in sculpture, for example, or in +painting? Let us grant its necessity. Colour and line, which are, so to +speak, the primal elements in the alphabet of painting and of sculpture, +have not in themselves determined and precise significance. Yellow and +red, green and blue are only general and confused sensations. But words +express particular sentiments and well-defined ideas, and have a value +that does not depend upon the form or the quality of the words. You +cannot, then, in using them, distinguish between significance and form, +or combine them independently of the idea they are intended to convey, +as is possible with colours and with lines, solely for the beauty that +results from combination. If literary art is a "representation," it is +also something more; and the lapse in Flaubert, as in all those who have +followed him in the letter, lies in having missed this distinction. You +cannot write merely to represent; you write also to express ideas, to +determine or to modify convictions; you write that you may act, or impel +others to act: these are effects beyond the power of painting or of +sculpture. A statue or a picture never brought about a revolution; a +book, a pamphlet, nay, a few fiery words, have overturned a dynasty. + +It is no longer true, as a whole generation of writers has believed, +that art and science may be one and the same thing; or that the first, +as Taine has said, may be an "anticipation of the second." We could not +in the presence of our fellow-creatures and their suffering affect the +indifference of a naturalist before the plant or the animal he is +studying. Whatever the nature of "human phenomena" may be, we in our +quality as man can only look at them with human eyes, and could +temptation make us change our point of view, it would properly be called +inhuman. + +One might add that, if it is not certain that nature was made for man, +and if, for that reason, science is wholly independent of conscience, +as we take it, it is otherwise with art. We know that man was not made +for art, but that art was made for man. We forget each time we speak of +"art for art's sake" that there is need precisely to define the meaning +of the expression and to recall that but for truth art could not have +for its object the perfecting of political institutions, the uplifting +of the masses, the correction of customs, the teachings of religion, and +that although this may lead finally to the realization of beauty, it +nevertheless remains the duty of man, and consequently, is human in its +origin, human in its development, and human in its aim. + +Upon all these points, it is only necessary to think sensibly, as also +upon the question--which we have not touched upon,--of knowing under +what conditions, in what sense, and in what degree the person of the +artist can or should remain foreign to his work. + +But a peculiarity of Flaubert's,--and one more personal, which even most +of the naturalists have not shared with him, neither the Dutch in their +paintings, nor the English in the history of romance (the author of _Tom +Jones_ or of _Clarissa Harlowe_), nor the Russians, Tolstoi or +Dostoiefski,--is to despise the rôle of irony in art. "My personages are +profoundly repugnant to me," he wrote, _à propos_ of _Madame Bovary_. +But they were not always repugnant to him, at least not all of them, +and, in verification of this, we find that he has not for Spendius, +Matho, Hamilcar, and Hanno, the boundless scorn that he affects for +Homais or for Bournisien, for Bouvard or for Pecuchet. + +We recognise here the particular and special form of Flaubert's +pessimism. That there could be people in the world, among his +contemporaries, who were not wholly absorbed and preoccupied with art, +surpassed his comprehension, and when this indifference did not arouse +an indignation which exasperated him even to blows, it drew from him a +scornful laughter that one might call Homeric or Rabelaisian, since it +incited more to anger than to gaiety. And this is the reason why _Madame +Bovary_, _Education Sentimentale_, _Un Coeur Simple_, and _Bouvard et +Pecuchet_ would be more truly named were they called satires and not +representations. + +The exaggeration of the principle here recoils upon itself. That +disinterestedness, that impartiality, that serenity which permitted him +to "hover impartially above all objects" deserted him. A satirist, or to +be more exact, a caricaturist, awoke within the naturalist. He raged at +his own characters. He railed at them and mocked them. The interest of +the representation had undergone a change. He was no longer in the +attitude of mere fidelity to facts, but in a state of scorn and violent +derision. Homais and Bournisien are no longer studies in themselves, but +a burden to Flaubert. His _Education Sentimentale_, in spite of him, +became, to use his own expression, an overflow of rancour. In _Bouvard +et Pecuchet_ he gave way to his hatred of humanity; here, as a favour, +and under the mask of irony, he brings himself into his work, and, like +a simple Madame Sand, or a vulgar De Musset, we perceive Flaubert +himself, bull-necked and ruddy, with the moustaches of a Gallic chief, +agonizing at each turn in the romance. + +It is not necessary to exaggerate Flaubert's influence. In his time +there were ten other writers, none of whom equalled him,--Parnassians in +poetry, positivists in criticism, realists in romance or in dramatic +writing,--who laboured at the same work. His æstheticism is not his +alone, yet _Madame Bovary_ and _Salammbô_ shot like unexpected meteors +out of a grey sky, the dull, low sky of the Second Empire. In 1860 the +sky was not so grey or so low; and the _Poèmes Antiques_ of Leconte de +Lisle, the _Études d'histoire religieuse_ of Renan, and the _Essais de +Critique_ of Taine, are possibly not unworthy to be placed in parallel +or comparison with the first writings of Flaubert. An exquisite judge of +things of the mind, J. J. Weiss, very clearly saw at that time what +there was in common in all these works, in the glory of which he was not +deceived when he added the _Fleurs du Mai_ by Charles Baudelaire, and +the first comedies of Alexandre Dumas _fils_. But the truth is, not one +of these works was marked with signs of masterly maturity in like degree +with _Madame Bovary_. + +It is, then, natural that, from day to day, Flaubert should become a +guide, and here, if we consider the nature of the lessons he gives, we +cannot deny their towering excellence. + +If there was need to agitate against romanticism, _Madame Bovary_ +performed the duty; and if in this agitation there was need to save what +was worth salvation, _Salammbô_ saved it. If it was fitting to recall to +poets and to writers of romance, to Madame Sand herself and Victor Hugo, +that art was not invented as a public carrier for their confidences, it +is still Flaubert who does it. He taught the school of hasty writers +that talent, or even genius, is in need of discipline,--the discipline +of a long and painful prenticehood in the making and unmaking of their +work. He has widened, and especially has he hollowed and deepened, the +notion that romanticism was born of nature, and, in doing this, has +brought art back to the fountain-head of inspiration. His rhetoric and +æstheticism brought him face to face with Nature, enabled him to see +her, a gift as rare as it is great, and to "represent" her--the proof of +the preceding. It is the artist that judges the model. Poets and +romance-writers, like painters, we value only in as much as they +represent life--by and for the fidelity, the originality, the novelty, +the depth, the distinction, the perfection with which they represent it. +It is the rule of rules, the principle of principles! And if Flaubert +had no other merit than to have seen this better than any other writer +of his age, it would be enough to assure for him a place, and a very +exalted place, in the Pantheon of French Literature. + +F. BRUNETIÈRE + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE + + +Gustave Flaubert was born at Rouen, December 12, 1821. His father was a +physician, who later became chief surgeon in the Hôtel Dieu of that +city, and his mother, Anne-Justine-Carline Fleuriot, was of Norman +extraction. + +Fourth of a family of six children, as a child Flaubert exhibited marked +fondness for stories, and, with his favourite sister, Caroline, would +invent them for pastime. As a youth, he was exceedingly handsome, tall, +broad-shouldered and athletic, of independent turn of mind, fond of +study, and caring little for the luxuries of life. He attended the +college of Rouen, but showed no marked characteristic save a pronounced +taste for history. After graduating, he went to Paris to read law, at +the École de Droit. At this time disease, the nature of which he always +endeavored to conceal from the world, attacked him and compelled a +return to Rouen. The complaint, as revealed after his death by Maxime +Ducamp, was epilepsy, and the constant fear of suffering an attack in +public led Flaubert to live the life of a recluse. + +The death of his father occurring at this critical period, Flaubert +abandoned the study of law, which he had begun only in obedience to the +formally expressed wish of his family. Having a comfortable income, he +turned his thoughts to literature, and from that time all other work was +distasteful. He read and wrote incessantly, although at this period he +never completed anything. Among his papers were found several fragments +written between his eighteenth and twentieth years. Some bear the stamp +of his individuality, if not in the substance, which is romantic,--at +least in the form, which is peculiarly lucid and concise,--for instance, +the slight, romantic, autobiographic sketch entitled _Novembre_. + +Flaubert wrote neither for money nor for fame. To him, art was religion, +and to it he sacrificed his life. Perfection of style was his goal; and +unremitting devotion to his ideal slew him. That he was never satisfied +with what he wrote, his letters show; and all who knew him marvelled at +his laborious and pathetic application to his work. He settled first in +Croisset, near Rouen, with his family, but shortly afterwards went to +Brittany with Maxime Ducamp. On his return he planned _La Tentation de +Saint Antoine_, which grew out of a fragmentary sketch entitled _Smarh_ +(a mediæval Mystery, the manuscript tells us), written in early youth. +_La Tentation_ proved a source of labor, for he never ceased revising it +until it appeared in book form in 1874. In 1847, he wrote a modern play, +entitled _Le Candidat_, produced in 1874 at the Vaudeville. It was not +his first dramatic effort, as he had already written a sort of lyric +fairy-play, _Le Château des Coeurs_, which was published in his +_Oeuvres Posthumes_. + +In 1849 Flaubert visited Greece, Egypt, and Syria, again accompanied by +his friend Maxime Ducamp. After his return he planned a book of +impressions similar to _Par les Champs et par les Grèves_, which was the +result of the trip to Brittany; but the beginning only was achieved. +Still he gathered many data for his future great novel, _Salammbô_. The +year 1851 found him back in Croisset, working at _La Tentation de Saint +Antoine_, which he dropped suddenly, when half finished, for an entirely +different subject--_Madame Bovary_, a novel of provincial life, +published first in 1857 in the _Revue de Paris_. For this Flaubert was +prosecuted, on the charge of offending against public morals, but was +acquitted after the remarkable defense offered by Maître Senard. + +Flaubert's fame dates from _Madame Bovary_, which was much discussed by +press and public. Many, including his friend, Maxime Ducamp, condemned +it, but Sainte-Beuve gave it his decisive and courageous approval. It +was generally considered, however, as the starting point of a new phase +in letters, frankly realistic, and intent on understanding and +expressing everything. Such success might have influenced Flaubert's +artistic inclinations but did not, for while _Madame Bovary_ was +appearing in the _Revue de Paris_, the _Artiste_ was publishing +fragments of _La Tentation de Saint Antoine_. + +In 1858 Flaubert went to Tunis, visited the site of ancient Carthage, +and four years afterwards wrote _Salammbô_, a marvellous reconstitution, +more than half intuitive, of a civilisation practically unrecorded in +history. This extraordinary book did not call forth the enthusiasm that +greeted _Madame Bovary_. Flaubert, in whom correctness of detail was a +passion, was condemned, even by Sainte-Beuve, for choosing from all +history a civilisation of which so little is known. The author replied, +and a lengthy controversy ensued, but it was not a subject that could be +settled definitely in one way or another. + +In _L'Education Sentimentale, roman d'un jeune homme_, published in +1869, Flaubert returns momentarily to the style which brought him such +rapid and deserved celebrity. In 1877 appeared _Trois Contes_, three +short stories written in the impersonal style of _Salammbô_, contrasting +strangely with _La Legende de Saint Julien l'Hospitalier_ and +_Herodias_, wherein Flaubert shows himself supreme in the art of +word-painting. + +Death came to him on May 8, 1880, as he was writing the last chapters of +a new work, _Bouvard et Pecuchet_, which was published in part after he +died and later appeared in book form (1881). + +At the age of twenty-five, Flaubert met the only woman who in any way +entered his sentimental life. She was an author, the wife of Lucien +Colet, and the "Madame X" of the Correspondence. Their friendship lasted +eight years and ended unpleasantly, Flaubert being too absorbed by his +worship for art to let passion sway him. + +He remained unmarried because his love for his mother and family made +calls upon him that he would not neglect. He was indifferent to women, +treated them with paternal indulgence, and often avowed that "woman is +the undoing of the just." Yet a warm friendship existed between him and +George Sand, and many of his letters are addressed to her, touching upon +various questions in art, literature, and politics. + +The misanthropy which haunted Flaubert, of which so much has been said, +was not innate, but was acquired through the constant contemplation of +human folly. It was natural for him to be cheerful and kind-hearted, +and of his generosity and disinterestedness not enough can be said. At +the close of his life financial difficulties assailed him, for he had +given a great part of his fortune to the support of a niece, restricting +his own expenses and living as modestly as possible. In 1879, M. Jules +Ferry, then Minister of Public Instruction, offered him a place in the +Bibliothèque Mazarine, but the appointment was not confirmed. + +Flaubert's method of production was slow and laborious. Sometimes weeks +were required to write a few pages, for he accumulated masses of notes +and, it must be said, so much erudition as at times to impede action. He +thought no toil too great, did it but aid him in his pursuit of literary +perfection, and when the work that called for such expenditure of +strength and thought was finished, he looked for no reward save that of +a satisfied soul. Alien to business wisdom, he believed that to set a +price upon his work disparaged it. + +In Flaubert, a Romanticist and a Naturalist at first were blended. But +the latter tendency was fostered and acknowledged, while the former was +repressed. He was an ardent advocate of the impersonal in art, declaring +that an author should not in a page, a line, or a word, express the +smallest part of an opinion. To him a writer was a mirror, but a mirror +that reflected life while adding that divine effulgence which is Art. Of +him a French Romanticist still living says: + + "Imagination was espoused by Unremitting-Toil-in-Faith and bore + Flaubert. France fed the child, but Art stepped in and gave him to + the Nations as a Beacon for the worshippers of + Truth-in-Letters-and-in-Life." + +The city of Rouen reared a monument to Flaubert's memory, but on the +spot where he breathed his last are reared the chimneys and the +buildings of a factory, a tribute--possibly unconscious--to reality in +life. + + +Before writing _Madame Bovary_ Flaubert had tested himself, and an idea +of the scope and variety of his ideas may be gained from the following +list of inedited and unfinished fragments: + +HISTORICAL + + The Death of the Due de Guise, 1835 + Norman Chronicle of the Tenth Century, 1836 + Two Hands on a Crown, or, During the Fifteenth Century, 1836. + Essay on the Struggle between Priesthood and Empire, 1838. + Rome and the Cæsars, 1839. + +TRAVELS + + Various notes on Travels to the Pyrenean Mountains, Corsica, + Spain and the Orient, from 1840 to 1850. + +TALES AND NOVELS + + The Plague in Florence, 1836 + Rage and Impotence, 1836 + The Society Woman, fantastic verses, 1836 + Bibliomania, 1836 + An Exquisite Perfume, or, The Buffoons, 1836. + Dreams of the Infernal Regions, 1837 + Passion and Chastity, 1837 + The Funeral of Dr. Mathurin, or, During the XVth Century, 1839. + Frenzy and Death, 1843 + Sentimental Education (not the novel published under same title). + 1843. + +PLAYS + + Louis XI, Drama, 1838 + Discovery of Vaccination, a parody of tragic style; one act only + was written. + +CRITICISMS + + On Romantic Literature in France + +MISCELLANY + + Quidquid volueris? A psychological study, 1837. + Agony (Sceptical Thoughts), 1838 + Art and Commerce, 1839. + Several nameless sketches. + +Unfortunately, nearly all the works of Flaubert's youth were mere +sketches, laid aside by him. Their publication would have added nothing +to his fame. Still, the loss of some would have been deplorable, to wit, +such gems as _Novembre_, _The Dance of Death_, _Rabelais_, and the +travels, _Over Strand and Field_. These sketches will be found in this +edition. + +ROBERT ARNOT + + + + +MADAME BOVARY + +PART I. + +I. + +THE NEW BOY. + + +We were in class when the head-master came in, followed by a "new +fellow," not wearing the school uniform, and a school servant carrying a +large desk. Those who had been asleep woke up, and every one rose as if +just surprised at his work. + +The head-master made a sign to us to sit down. Then, turning to the +class-master, he said to him in a low voice: + +"Monsieur Roger, here is a pupil whom I recommend to your care; he'll be +in the second. If his work and conduct are satisfactory, he will go into +one of the upper classes, as becomes his age." + +The "new fellow," standing in the corner behind the door so that he +could hardly be seen, was a country lad of about fifteen, and taller +than any of us. His hair was cut square on his forehead like a village +chorister's; he looked reliable, but very ill at ease. Although he was +not broad-shouldered, his short school jacket of green cloth with black +buttons must have been tight about the armholes, and showed at the +opening of the cuffs red wrists accustomed to being bare. His legs, in +blue stockings, looked out from beneath yellow trousers, drawn tight by +braces. He wore stout, ill-cleaned, hobnailed boots. + +We began repeating the lesson. He listened with all his ears, as +attentive as if at a sermon, not daring even to cross his legs or lean +on his elbow; and when at two o'clock the bell rang, the master was +obliged to tell him to fall into line with the rest of us. + +When we came back to work, we were in the habit of throwing our caps on +the floor so as to have our hands more free; we used from the door to +toss them under the form, so that they hit against the wall and made a +lot of dust: it was "the thing." + +But, whether he had not noticed the trick, or did not dare to attempt +it, the "new fellow" was still holding his cap on his knees even after +prayers were over. It was one of those head-gears of composite order, in +which we can find traces of the bearskin, shako, billycock hat, sealskin +cap, and cotton nightcap; one of those poor things, in fine, whose dumb +ugliness has depths of expression, like an imbecile's face. Oval, +stiffened with whalebone, it began with three round knobs; then came in +succession lozenges of velvet and rabbit-skin separated by a red band; +after that a sort of bag that ended in a cardboard polygon covered with +complicated braiding, from which hung, at the end of a long, thin cord, +small twisted gold threads in the manner of a tassel. The cap was new; +its peak shone. + +"Rise," said the master. + +He stood up; his cap fell. The whole class began to laugh. He stooped to +pick it up. A neighbor knocked it down again with his elbow; he picked +it up once more. + +"Get rid of your helmet," said the master, who was a bit of a wag. + +There was a burst of laughter from the boys, which so thoroughly put the +poor lad out of countenance that he did not know whether to keep his cap +in his hand, leave it on the floor, or put it on his head. He sat down +again and placed it on his knee. + +"Rise," repeated the master, "and tell me your name." + +The new boy articulated in a stammering voice an unintelligible name. + +"Again!" + +The same sputtering of syllables was heard, drowned by the tittering of +the class. + +"Louder!" cried the master; "louder!" + +The "new fellow" then took a supreme resolution, opened an inordinately +large mouth, and shouted at the top of his voice as if calling some one +the word, "Charbovari." + +A hubbub broke out, rose in _crescendo_ with bursts of shrill voices +(they yelled, barked, stamped, repeated "Charbovari! Charbovari!"), then +died away into single notes, growing quieter only with great difficulty, +and now and again suddenly recommencing along the line of a form whence +rose here and there, like a damp cracker going off, a stifled laugh. + +However, amid a rain of impositions, order was gradually re-established +in the class; and the master having succeeded in catching the name of +"Charles Bovary," having had it dictated to him, spelt out, and re-read, +at once ordered the poor devil to go and sit down on the punishment form +at the foot of the master's desk. He got up, but before going +hesitated. + +"What are you looking for?" asked the master. + +"My c-a-p," timidly said the "new fellow," casting troubled looks round +him. + +"Five hundred verses for all the class!" shouted in a furious voice, +stopped, like the _Quos ego_, a fresh outburst "Silence!" continued the +master indignantly, wiping his brow with his handkerchief, which he had +just taken from his cap. "As to you, 'new boy,' you will conjugate +'_ridiculus sum_' twenty times." Then, in a gentler tone, "Come, you'll +find your cap again; it hasn't been stolen." + +Quiet was restored. Heads bent over desks, and the "new fellow" remained +for two hours in an exemplary attitude, although from time to time some +paper pellet flipped from the tip of a pen came bang in his face. But he +wiped his face with one hand and continued motionless, his eyes lowered. + +In the evening, at preparation, he pulled out his pens from his desk, +arranged his small belongings, and carefully ruled his paper. We saw him +working conscientiously, looking out every word in the dictionary, and +taking the greatest pains. Thanks, no doubt, to the willingness he +showed, he had not to go down to the class below. But though he knew his +rules passably, he had little finish in composition. It was the curé of +his village who had taught him his first Latin; his parents, from +motives of economy, having sent him to school as late as possible. + +His father, Monsieur Charles Denis Bartolomé Bovary, retired +assistant-surgeon-major, compromised about 1812 in certain conscription +scandals, and forced at that time to leave the service, had then taken +advantage of his fine figure to get hold of a dowry of sixty thousand +francs that offered in the person of a hosier's daughter who had fallen +in love with his good looks. A fine man, a great talker, making his +spurs ring as he walked, wearing whiskers that ran into his moustache, +his fingers always garnished with rings, and dressed in loud colors, he +had the dash of a military man with the easy air of a commercial +traveller. Once married, he lived for three or four years on his wife's +fortune, dining well, rising late, smoking long porcelain pipes, not +coming in at night till after the theater, and haunting cafés. The +father-in-law died, leaving little; he was indignant at this, "went in +for the business," lost some money in it, then retired to the country, +where he thought he would make money. But, as he knew no more about +farming than calico, as he rode his horses instead of sending them to +plough, drank his cider in bottle instead of selling it in cask, ate the +finest poultry in his farmyard, and greased his hunting-boots with the +fat of his pigs, he was not long in finding out that he would do better +to give up all speculation. + +For two hundred francs a year he managed to live on the border of the +provinces of Caux and Picardy, in a kind of place half farm, half +private house; and here, soured, eaten up with regrets, cursing his +luck, jealous of every one, he shut himself up at the age of forty-five, +sick of men, he said, and determined to live in peace. + +His wife had adored him once on a time; she had bored him with a +thousand servilities that had only estranged him the more. Lively once, +expansive and affectionate, in growing older she had become (after the +fashion of wine that, exposed to air, turns to vinegar) ill-tempered, +grumbling, irritable. She had suffered so much without complaint at +first, when she had seen him going after all the village drabs, and when +a score of bad houses sent him back to her at night, weary, stinking +drunk. Then her pride revolted. After that she was silent, burying her +anger in a dumb stoicism that she maintained till her death. She was +constantly going about looking after business matters. She called on the +lawyers, the president, remembered when bills fell due, got them +renewed, and at home, ironed, sewed, washed, looked after the workmen, +paid the accounts, while he, troubling himself about nothing, eternally +besotted in sleepy sulkiness, whence he only roused himself to say +disagreeable things to her, sat smoking by the fire and spitting into +the cinders. + +When she had a child, it had to be sent out to nurse. When he came home, +the lad was spoiled as if he were a prince. His mother stuffed him with +jam; his father let him run about barefoot, and, playing the +philosopher, even said he might as well go about quite naked like the +young of animals. As opposed to the maternal ideas, he had a certain +virile idea of childhood on which he sought to mould his son, wishing +him to be brought up hardily, like a Spartan, to give him a strong +constitution. He sent him to bed without any fire, taught him to drink +off large draughts of rum, and to jeer at religious processions. But, +peaceable by nature, the lad answered only poorly to his notions. His +mother always kept him near her; she cut out cardboard for him, told him +tales, entertained him with endless monologues full of melancholy gaiety +and charming nonsense. In her life's isolation she centered on the +child's head all her shattered, broken little vanities. She dreamed of +high station; she already saw him, tall, handsome, clever, settled as an +engineer or in the law. She taught him to read, and even on an old piano +she had taught him two or three little songs. But to all this Monsieur +Bovary, caring little for letters, said: "It is not worth while. Shall +we ever have the means to send him to a public school, to buy him a +practice, or to start him in business? Besides, with cheek a man always +gets on in the world." Madame Bovary bit her lips, and the child knocked +about the village. + +He went after the laborers, drove away with clods of earth the ravens +that were flying about. He ate blackberries along the hedges, minded the +geese with a long switch, went haymaking during harvest, ran about in +the woods, played hop-scotch under the church porch on rainy days, and +at great fêtes begged the beadle to let him toll the bells, that he +might hang all his weight on the long rope and feel himself borne upward +by it in its swing. Meanwhile he grew like an oak; he was strong of +hand, fresh of color. + +When he was twelve years old his mother had her own way; he began his +lessons. The curé took him in hand; but the lessons were so short and +irregular that they could not be of much use. They were given at spare +moments in the sacristy, standing up, hurriedly, between a baptism and a +burial; or else the curé, if he had not to go out, sent for his pupil +after the _Angelus_. They went up to his room and settled down; the +flies and moths fluttered round the candle. It was close, the child fell +asleep and the good man, beginning to doze with his hands on his +stomach, was soon snoring with his mouth wide open. On other occasions, +when Monsieur le Curé, on his way back after administering the viaticum +to some sick person in the neighborhood, caught sight of Charles playing +about the fields, he called him, lectured him for a quarter of an hour, +and took advantage of the occasion to make him conjugate his verb at the +foot of a tree. The rain interrupted them or an acquaintance passed. All +the same he was always pleased with him, and even said the "young man" +had a very good memory. + +Charles could not go on like this. Madame Bovary took strong steps. +Ashamed, or rather tired out, Monsieur Bovary gave in without a +struggle, and they waited one year longer, so that the lad should take +his first communion. + +Six months more passed, and the year after Charles was finally sent to +school at Rouen, whither his father took him towards the end of October, +at the time of the St. Romain fair. + +It would now be impossible for any of us to remember anything about him. +He was a youth of even temperament, who played in playtime, worked in +school-hours, was attentive in class, slept well in the dormitory, and +ate well in the refectory. He had _in loco parentis_ a wholesale +ironmonger in the Rue Ganterie, who took him out once a month on Sundays +after his shop was shut, sent him for a walk on the quay to look at the +boats, and then brought him back to college at seven o'clock before +supper. Every Thursday evening he wrote a long letter to his mother with +red ink and three wafers; then he went over his history note-books, or +read an old volume of "Anarchasis" that was knocking about the study. +When we went for walks he talked to the servant who, like himself, came +from the country. + +By dint of hard work he kept always about the middle of the class; once +even he got a certificate in natural history. But at the end of his +third year his parents withdrew him from the school to make him study +medicine, convinced that he could even take his degree by himself. + +His mother chose a room for him on the fourth floor of a dyer's she +knew, overlooking the Eau-de-Robec. She made arrangements for his board, +got him furniture, a table and two chairs, sent home for an old +cherry-tree bedstead, and bought besides a small cast-iron stove with +the supply of wood that was to warm the poor child. Then at the end of a +week she departed, after a thousand injunctions to be good, now that he +was going to be left to himself. + +The syllabus that he read on the notice-board stunned him: lectures on +anatomy, lectures on pathology, lectures on physiology, lectures on +pharmacy, lectures on botany and clinical medicine, and therapeutics, +without counting hygiene and materia medica--all names of whose +etymologies he was ignorant, and that were to him as so many doors to +sanctuaries filled with magnificent darkness. + +He understood nothing of it all; it was all very well to listen--he did +not follow. Still he worked; he had bound note-books, he attended all +the courses, never missed a single lecture. He did his little daily task +like a mill-horse, who goes round and round with his eyes bandaged, not +knowing what work he is doing. + +To spare him expense his mother sent him every week by the carrier a +piece of veal baked in the oven, on which he lunched when he came back +from the hospital, while he sat kicking his feet against the wall. After +this he had to run off to lectures, to the operation-room, to the +hospital, and return to his home at the other end of the town. In the +evening, after the poor dinner of his landlord, he went back to his room +and set to work again in his wet clothes, that smoked as he sat in front +of the hot stove. + +On the fine summer evenings, at the time when the close streets are +empty, when the servants are playing shuttlecock at the doors, he opened +his window and leaned out. The river, that makes of this quarter of +Rouen a wretched little Venice, flowed beneath him, between the bridges +and the railings, yellow, violet, or blue. Working men, kneeling on the +banks, washed their bare arms in the water. On poles projecting from the +attics, skeins of cotton were drying in the air. Opposite, beyond the +roofs, spread the pure heaven with the red sun setting. How pleasant it +must be at home! How fresh under the beech-tree! And he expanded his +nostrils to breathe in the sweet odors of the country which did not +reach him. + +He grew thin, his figure became taller, his face took a saddened look +that made it almost interesting. Naturally, through indifference, he +abandoned all the resolutions he had made. Once he missed a lecture; the +next day all the lectures; and, enjoying his idleness, little by little +he gave up work altogether. He got into the habit of going to the +public-house, and had a passion for dominoes. To shut himself up every +evening in the dirty public room, to push about on marble tables the +small sheep-bones with black dots, seemed to him a fine proof of his +freedom, which raised him in his own esteem. It was beginning to see +life, the sweetness of stolen pleasures; and when he entered, he put his +hand on the door-handle with a joy almost sensual. Then many things +hidden within him come out; he learnt couplets by heart and sang them to +his boon companions, became enthusiastic about Béranger, learnt how to +make punch, and, finally, how to make love. + +Thanks to these preparatory labors, he failed completely in his +examination for an ordinary degree. He was expected home the same night +to celebrate his success. He started on foot, stopped at the beginning +of the village, sent for his mother, and told her all. She excused him, +threw the blame of his failure on the injustice of the examiners, +encouraged him a little, and took upon herself to set matters straight. +It was only five years later that Monsieur Bovary knew the truth; it was +old then, and he accepted it. Moreover, he could not believe that a man +born of him could be a fool. + +So Charles set to work again and crammed for his examination, +ceaselessly learning all the old questions by heart. He passed pretty +well. What a happy day for his mother! They gave a grand dinner. + +Where should he go to practise? To Tostes, where there was only one old +doctor. For a long time Madame Bovary had been on the look-out for his +death, and the old fellow had barely been packed off when Charles was +installed, opposite his place, as his successor. + +But it was not everything to have brought up a son, to have had him +taught medicine, and discovered Tostes, where he could practise it; he +must have a wife. She found him one--the widow of a bailiff at Dieppe, +who was forty-five and had an income of twelve hundred francs. Though +she was ugly, as dry as a bone, her face with as many pimples as the +spring has buds, Madame Dubuc had no lack of suitors. To attain her ends +Madame Bovary had to oust them all, and she even succeeded in very +cleverly baffling the intrigues of a pork-butcher backed up by the +priests. + +Charles had seen in marriage the advent of an easier life, thinking he +would be more free to do as he liked with himself and his money. But his +wife was master; he had to say this and not say that in company, to fast +every Friday, dress as she liked, harass at her bidding those patients +who did not pay. She opened his letters, watched his comings and goings, +and listened at the partition-wall when women came to consult him in his +surgery. + +She must have her chocolate every morning, attentions without end. She +constantly complained of her nerves, her chest, her liver. The noise of +footsteps made her ill; when people left her, solitude became odious to +her; if they came back, it was doubtless to see her die. When Charles +returned in the evening, she stretched forth two long thin arms from +beneath the sheets, put them round his neck, and having made him sit +down on the edge of the bed, began to talk to him of her troubles: he +was neglecting her, he loved another. She had been warned she would be +unhappy; and she ended by asking him for a dose of medicine and a little +more love. + + + + +II. + +A GOOD PATIENT. + + +One night toward eleven o'clock they were awakened by the noise of a +horse pulling up outside their door. The servant opened the +garret-window and parleyed for some time with a man in the street below. +He came for the doctor, had a letter for him. Nastasie came downstairs +shivering and undid the bars and bolts one after the other. The man left +his horse, and, following the servant, suddenly came in behind her. He +pulled out from his wool cap with grey top-knots a letter wrapped up in +a rag and presented it gingerly to Charles, who rested his elbow on the +pillow to read it. Nastasie, standing near the bed, held the light. +Madame in modesty had turned to the wall and showed only her back. + +This letter, sealed with a small seal in blue wax, begged Monsieur +Bovary to come immediately to the farm of the Bertaux to set a broken +leg. Now from Tostes to the Bertaux was a good eighteen miles across +country by way of Longueville and Saint-Victor. It was a dark night; +Madame Bovary junior was afraid of accidents for her husband. So it was +decided the stable-boy should go on first; Charles would start three +hours later when the moon rose. A boy was to be sent to meet him, and +show him the way to the farm, and open the gates for him. + +Towards four o'clock in the morning, Charles, well wrapped up in his +cloak, set out for the Bertaux. Still sleepy from the warmth of his bed, +he let himself be lulled by the quiet trot of his horse. When it stopped +of its own accord in front of those holes surrounded with thorns that +are dug on the margin of furrows, Charles awoke with a start, suddenly +remembered the broken leg, and tried to call to mind all the fractures +he knew. The rain had stopped, day was breaking, and on the branches of +the leafless trees birds roosted motionless, their little feathers +bristling in the cold morning wind. The flat country stretched as far as +eye could see, and the tufts of trees round the farms at long intervals +seemed like dark violet stains on the vast gray surface, that on the +horizon faded into the gloom of the sky, Charles from time to time +opened his eyes, his mind grew weary, and sleep coming upon him, he soon +fell into a doze wherein his recent sensations blending with memories, +he became conscious of a double self, at once student and married man, +lying in his bed as but now, and crossing the operation theater as of +old. The warm smell of poultices mingled in his brain with the fresh +odor of dew; he heard the iron rings rattling along the curtain-rods of +the bed, and saw his wife sleeping. As he passed Vassonville he came +upon a boy sitting on the grass at the edge of a ditch. + +"Are you the doctor?" asked the child. + +And on Charles's answer he took his wooden shoes in his hands and ran on +in front of him. + +The general practitioner, riding along, gathered from his guide's talk +that Monsieur Rouault must be one of the well-to-do farmers. He had +broken his leg the evening before on his way home from a Twelfth-night +feast at a neighbor's. His wife had been dead for two years. There was +only his daughter, who helped him to keep house, with him. + +The ruts were becoming deeper; they were approaching the Bertaux. The +little lad, slipping through a hole in the hedge, disappeared; then he +came back to the end of a courtyard to open the gate. The horse slipped +on the wet grass; Charles had to stoop to pass under the branches. The +watchdogs in their kennels barked, dragging at their chains. As he +entered the Bertaux the horse took fright and stumbled. + +It was a substantial-looking farm. In the stables, over the top of the +open doors, one could see great cart-horses quietly feeding from new +racks. Right along the outbuildings extended a large dunghill, from +which manure liquid oozed, while amidst fowls and turkeys five or six +peacocks, a luxury in Chauchois farmyards, were foraging on the top of +it. The sheepfold was long, the barn high, with walls smooth as your +hand. Under the cart-shed were two large carts and four ploughs, with +their whips, shafts, and harnesses complete, whose fleeces of blue wool +were getting soiled by the fine dust that fell from the granaries. The +courtyard sloped upwards, planted with trees set out symmetrically, and +the chattering noise of a flock of geese was heard near the pond. + +A young woman in a blue merino dress with three flounces came to the +threshold of the door to receive Monsieur Bovary, whom she led to the +kitchen, where a large fire was blazing. The servants' breakfast was +boiling beside it in small pots of all sizes. Some damp clothes were +drying inside the chimney-corner. The shovel, tongs, and the nozzle of +the bellows, all of colossal size, shone like polished steel, while +along the walls hung many pots and pans in which the clear flame of the +hearth, mingling with the first rays of the sun coming in through the +window, was mirrored fitfully. + +Charles went up to the first floor to see the patient. He found him in +his bed, sweating under his bed-clothes, having thrown his cotton +nightcap far away from him. He was a fat little man of fifty, with white +skin and blue eyes, the fore part of his head was bald, and he wore +ear-rings. Near him on a chair stood a large decanter of brandy, whence +he poured himself out a little from time to time to keep up his spirits; +but as soon as he caught sight of the doctor his elation subsided, and +instead of swearing, as he had been doing for the last twelve hours, he +began to groan feebly. + +The fracture was a simple one, without any kind of complication. Charles +could not have hoped for an easier case. Then calling to mind the +devices of his masters at the bedside of patients, he comforted the +sufferer with all sorts of kindly remarks, those caresses of the surgeon +that are like the oil they put on bistouries. In order to make some +splints a bundle of laths was brought up from the cart-house. Charles +selected one, cut it into two pieces and planed it with a fragment of +window-pane, while the servant tore up sheets to make bandages, and +Mademoiselle Emma tried to sew some pads. As she was a long time before +she found her workcase, her father grew impatient; she did not answer, +but as she sewed she pricked her fingers, which she then put to her +mouth to suck. Charles was much surprised at the whiteness of her nails. +They were shiny, delicate at the tips, more polished than the ivory of +Dieppe, and almond-shaped. Yet her hand was not beautiful, perhaps not +white enough, and a little hard at the knuckles; besides, it was too +long, with no soft inflections in the outlines. Her real beauty was in +her eyes. Although brown, they seemed black because of the lashes, and +her look came at you frankly, with a candid boldness. + +The bandaging over, the doctor was invited by Monsieur Rouault himself +to "pick a bit" before he left. + +Charles went down into the room on the ground-floor. Knives and forks +and silver goblets were laid for two on a little table at the foot of a +huge bed that had a canopy of printed cotton with figures representing +Turks. There was an odor of iris-root and damp sheets that escaped from +a large oak chest opposite the window. On the floor in corners were +sacks of flour stuck upright in rows. These were the overflow from the +neighboring granary, to which three stone steps led. By way of +decoration for the apartment, hanging to a nail in the middle of the +wall, whose green paint had scaled off from the effects of saltpeter, +was a crayon head of Minerva in a gold frame, underneath which was +written in Gothic letters "To dear Papa." + +First they spoke of the patient, then of the weather, of the great cold, +of the wolves that infested the fields at night. Mademoiselle Rouault +did not at all like the country, especially now that she had to look +after the farm almost alone. As the room was chilly, she shivered as she +ate. This showed something of her full lips, that she had a habit of +biting when silent. + +Her neck stood out from a white turned-down collar. Her hair, whose two +black folds seemed each of a single piece, so smooth were they, was +parted in the middle by a delicate line that curved slightly with the +curve of the head; and, just showing the tip of the ear, it was joined +behind in a thick chignon, with a wavy movement at the temples that the +country doctor saw now for the first time in his life. The upper part of +her cheek was rose-colored. She had, like a man, thrust in between two +buttons of her bodice a tortoise-shell eyeglass. + +When Charles, after bidding farewell to old Rouault, returned to the +room before leaving, he found her standing, her forehead against the +window, looking into the garden, where the bean props had been knocked +down by the wind. She turned round. + +"Are you looking for anything?" she asked. + +"My whip, if you please," he answered. + +He began rummaging on the bed, behind the doors, under the chairs. It +had fallen to the floor, between the sacks and the wall. Mademoiselle +Emma saw it, and bent over the flour sacks. Charles, out of politeness, +made a dash also, and as he stretched out his arm, at the same moment +felt his breast brush against the back of the young girl bending beneath +him. She drew herself up, scarlet, and looked at him over her shoulder +as she handed him his whip. + +Instead of returning to the Bertaux in three days as he had promised, he +went back the very next day, then regularly twice a week, without +counting the visits he paid now and then as if by accident. + +Everything, moreover, went well; the patient progressed favorably; and +when, at the end of forty-six days, old Rouault was seen trying to walk +alone in his "den," Monsieur Bovary began to be looked upon as a man of +great capacity. Old Rouault said that he could not have been cured +better by the first doctor of Yvetot, or even of Rouen. + +As to Charles, he did not stay to ask himself why it was a pleasure to +him to go to the Bertaux. Had he done so, he would, no doubt, have +attributed his zeal to the importance of the case, or perhaps to the +money he hoped to make by it. Was it for this, however, that his visits +to the farm formed a delightful exception to the meagre occupations of +his life? On these days he rose early, set off at a gallop, urging on +his horse, then got down to wipe his boots in the grass and put on black +gloves before entering. He liked going into the courtyard, and noticing +the gate turn against his shoulder, the cock crow on the wall, the lads +run to meet him. He liked the granary and the stables; he liked old +Rouault, who pressed his hand and called him his savior; he liked the +small wooden shoes of Mademoiselle Emma on the scoured flags of the +kitchen--her high heels made her a little taller; and when she walked in +front of him, the wooden soles springing up quickly struck with a sharp +sound against the leather of her boots. + +She always reconducted him to the first step of the stairs. When his +horse had not yet been brought round she stayed there. They had said +"Good-bye;" there was no more talking. The open air wrapped her round, +playing with the soft down on the back of her neck, or blew to and fro +on her hips her apron-strings, that fluttered like streamers. Once, +during a thaw, the bark of the trees in the yard was oozing, the snow on +the roofs of the outbuildings was melting; she stood on the threshold, +and went to fetch her sunshade and opened it. The sunshade, of silk of +the color of pigeons' breasts, through which the sun shone, lighted up +with shifting hues the white skin of her face. She smiled under the +tender warmth, and drops of water could be heard falling one by one on +the stretched silk. + +During the first period of Charles's visits to the Bertaux, Madame +Bovary, junior, never failed to inquire after the invalid, and she had +even chosen in the book that she kept on a system of double entry a +clean blank page for Monsieur Rouault. But when she heard he had a +daughter, she began to make inquiries, and she learnt that Mademoiselle +Rouault, brought up at the Ursuline Convent, had received what is called +"a good education;" and so knew dancing, geography, drawing, how to +embroider and play the piano. That was the last straw. + +"So it is for this," she said to herself, "that his face beams when he +goes to see her, and that he puts on his new waistcoat at the risk of +spoiling it with the rain. Ah! that woman! that woman!" + +And she detested her instinctively. At first she solaced herself by +allusions that Charles did not understand, then by casual observations +that he let pass for fear of a storm, finally by open apostrophes to +which he knew not what to answer. "Why did he go back to the Bertaux now +that Monsieur Rouault was cured and that these folks hadn't paid yet? +Ah! it was because a young lady was there, some one who knew how to +talk, to embroider, to be witty. That was what he cared about; he wanted +town misses." And she went on: + +"The daughter of old Rouault a town miss! Get out! Their grandfather was +a shepherd, and they have a cousin who was almost had up at the assizes +for a nasty blow in a quarrel. It is not worth while making such a fuss, +or showing herself at church on Sundays in a silk gown, like a countess. +Besides, the poor old chap, if it hadn't been for the colza last year, +would have had much ado to pay up his arrears." + +For very weariness Charles left off going to the Bertaux. Héloise made +him swear, his hand on the prayer-book, that he would go there no more, +after much sobbing and many kisses, in a great outburst of love. He +obeyed then, but the strength of his desire protested against the +servility of his conduct; and he thought, with a kind of naïve +hypocrisy, that this interdict to see her gave him a sort of right to +love her. And then the widow was thin; she had long teeth; wore in all +weathers a little black shawl, the edge of which hung down between her +shoulder-blades; her bony figure was sheathed in her clothes as if they +were a scabbard; they were too short, and displayed her ankles with the +laces of her large boots crossed over gray stockings. + +Charles's mother came to see them from time to time, but after a few +days the daughter-in-law seemed to put her own edge on her, and then, +like two knives, they scarified him with their reflections and +observations. It was wrong of him to eat so much. Why did he always +offer a glass of something to every one who came? What obstinacy not to +wear flannels! + +In the spring it came about that a notary at Ingouville, the holder of +the widow Dubuc's property, one fine day went off, taking with him all +the money in his office. Héloise, it is true, still possessed, besides a +share in a boat valued at six thousand francs, her house in the Rue St. +François; and yet, with all this fortune that had been so trumpeted +abroad, nothing, excepting perhaps a little furniture and a few clothes, +had appeared in the household. The matter had to be gone into. The house +at Dieppe was found to be eaten up with mortgages to its foundations; +what she had placed with the notary God only knew, and her share in the +boat did not exceed one thousand crowns. She had lied, the good lady! In +his exasperation, Monsieur Bovary the elder, smashing a chair on the +flags, accused his wife of having caused the misfortune of their son by +harnessing him to such a harridan, whose harness wasn't worth her hide. +They came to Tostes. Explanations followed. There were scenes. Héloise +in tears, throwing her arms about her husband, conjured him to defend +her from his parents. Charles tried to speak up for her. They grew angry +and left the house. + +But the blow had struck home. A week after, as she was hanging up some +washing in her yard, she was seized with a spitting of blood, and the +next day, while Charles had his back turned to her drawing the +window-curtain, she said, "O God!" gave a sigh and fainted. She was +dead! What a surprise! + +When all was over at the cemetery, Charles went home. He found no one +downstairs; he went up to the first floor to their room; saw her dress +still hanging at the foot of the alcove; then, leaning against the +writing-table, he stayed until the evening, buried in a sorrowful +reverie. She had loved him, after all! + + + + +III. + +A LONELY WIDOWER. + + +One morning old Rouault brought Charles the money for setting his +leg--seventy-five francs in forty-sou pieces, and a turkey. He had heard +of his loss, and consoled him as well as he could. + +"I know what it is," said he, clapping him on the shoulder; "I've been +through it. When I lost my dear departed, I went into the fields to be +quite alone. I fell at the foot of a tree; I cried; I called on God; I +talked nonsense to him. I wanted to be like the moles that I saw on the +branches, their insides swarming with worms, dead, and an end of it. And +when I thought that there were others at that very moment with their +nice little wives holding them in their embrace, I struck great blows on +the earth with my stick. I was pretty well mad with not eating; the very +idea of going to a café disgusted me--you wouldn't believe it. Well, +quite softly, one day following another, a spring on a winter, and an +autumn after a summer, this wore away, piece by piece, crumb by crumb; +it passed away, it is gone, I should say it has sunk; for something +always remains at the bottom, as one would say--a weight here, at one's +heart. But since it is the lot of all of us, one must not give way +altogether, and, because others have died, want to die too. You must +pull yourself together, Monsieur Bovary. It will pass away. Come to see +us; my daughter thinks of you now and again, d'ye know, and she says you +are forgetting her. Spring will soon be here. We'll have some +rabbit-shooting in the warrens to amuse you a bit." + +Charles followed his advice. He went back to the Bertaux. He found all +as he had left it, that is to say, as it was five months ago. The pear +trees were already in blossom, and Farmer Rouault, on his legs again, +came and went, making the farm more full of life. + +Thinking it his duty to heap the greatest attention upon the doctor +because of his sad position, he begged him not to take his hat off, +spoke to him in an undertone as if he had been ill, and even pretended +to be angry because nothing rather lighter had been prepared for him +than for the others, such as a little clotted cream or stewed pears. He +told stories. Charles found himself laughing, but the remembrance of his +wife suddenly coming back to him depressed him. Coffee was brought in; +he thought no more about her. + +He thought less of her as he grew accustomed to living alone. The new +delight of independence soon made his loneliness bearable. He could now +change his meal-times, go in or out without explanation, and when he was +very tired stretch himself full length on his bed. So he nursed and +coddled himself and accepted the consolations that were offered him. On +the other hand, the death of his wife had not served him ill in his +business, since for a month people had been saying, "The poor young man! +what a loss!" His name had been talked about, his practice had +increased; and, moreover, he could go to the Bertaux just as he liked. +He had an aimless hope, and was vaguely happy; he thought himself better +looking as he brushed his whiskers before the looking-glass. + +One day he got there about three o'clock. Everybody was in the fields. +He went into the kitchen, but did not at once catch sight of Emma; the +outside shutters were closed. Through the chinks of the wood the sun +sent across the flooring long fine rays that were broken at the corners +of the furniture and trembled along the ceiling. Some flies on the table +were crawling up the glasses that had been used, and buzzing as they +drowned themselves in the dregs of the cider. The daylight that came in +by the chimney made velvet of the soot at the back of the fireplace, and +touched with blue the cold cinders. Between the window and the hearth +Emma was sewing; she wore no fichu; he could see small drops of +perspiration on her bare shoulders. + +After the fashion of country folks she asked him to have something to +drink. He said no; she insisted and at last laughingly offered to have a +glass of liqueur with him. So she went to fetch a bottle of curaçoa from +the cupboard, reached down two small glasses, filled one to the brim, +poured scarcely anything into the other, and, after clinking their +glasses, carried hers to her mouth. As it was almost empty she bent back +to drink, her head thrown back, her lips pouting, her neck on the +strain. She laughed at getting none of it, while with the tip of her +tongue passing between her small teeth she licked drop by drop the +bottom of her glass. + +She sat down again and took up her work, a white cotton stocking she was +darning. She worked with her head bent down; she did not speak, nor did +Charles. The air coming in under the door blew a little dust over the +flags; he watched it drift along, and heard nothing but the throbbing in +his head and the faint clucking of a hen that had laid an egg in the +yard. Emma from time to time cooled her cheeks with the palms of her +hands, and cooled these again on the knobs of the huge fire-dogs. + +She complained of suffering since the beginning of the season from +giddiness; she asked if sea-baths would do her any good; she began +talking of her convent, Charles of his school; words came to them. They +went up into her bedroom. She showed him her old music-books, the little +prizes she had won, and the oak-leaf crowns, left at the bottom of a +cupboard. She spoke to him, too, of her mother, of the country, and even +showed him the bed in the garden where, on the first Friday of every +month, she gathered flowers to put on her mother's tomb. But their +gardeners had understood nothing about it; servants were so careless. +She would have dearly liked, if only for the winter, to live in town, +although the length of the fine days made the country perhaps even more +wearisome in the summer. And, according to what she was saying, her +voice was clear, sharp, or, on a sudden, all languor, lingering out in +modulations that ended almost in murmurs as she spoke to herself; now +joyous, opening big, naïve eyes, then with her eyelids half closed, her +look full of boredom, her thoughts wandering. + +Going home at night, Charles went over her words, one by one, trying to +recall them, to fill out their sense, that he might piece out the life +she had lived before he knew her. But he never saw her in his thoughts +other than he had seen her the first time, or as he had just left her. +Then he asked himself what would become of her--if she would be married, +and to whom? Alas! old Rouault was rich, and she!--so beautiful! But +Emma's face always rose before his eyes, and a monotone, like the +humming of a top, sounded in his ears, "If you should marry, after all! +if you should marry!" At night he could not sleep; his throat was +parched; he was athirst. He got up to drink from the water-bottle and +opened the window. The night was covered with stars, a warm wind blowing +in the distance; the dogs were barking. He turned his head toward the +Bertaux. + +Thinking that, after all, he should lose nothing, Charles promised +himself to ask her in marriage as soon as occasion offered, but each +time such occasion did offer the fear of not finding the right words +sealed his lips. + +Old Rouault would not have been sorry to be rid of his daughter, who was +of no use to him in the house. In his heart he excused her, thinking her +too clever for farming, a calling under the ban of Heaven, since one +never saw a millionaire in it. Far from having made a fortune by it, the +good man was losing every year; for if he was good in bargaining, in +which he enjoyed the dodges of the trade, on the other hand, agriculture +properly so called, and the internal management of the farm, suited him +less than most people. He did not willingly take his hands out of his +pockets, and did not spare expense in all that concerned himself, +liking to eat well, to have good fires, and to sleep well. He liked old +cider, underdone legs of mutton, _glorias_[1] well beaten up. He took +his meals in the kitchen alone, opposite the fire, on a little table +brought to him all ready laid, as on the stage. + +[Footnote 1: A mixture of coffee and spirits.--TRANS.] + +When, therefore, he perceived that Charles's cheeks grew red if near his +daughter, which meant that he would propose for her one of these days, +he chewed the cud of the matter beforehand. He certainly thought him a +little meagre, and not quite the son-in-law he would have liked, but he +was said to be well-conducted, economical, very learned, and no doubt +would not make too many difficulties about the dowry. Now, as old +Rouault would soon be forced to sell twenty-two acres of "his property," +as he owed a good deal to the mason, to the harness-maker, and as the +shaft of the cider-press wanted renewing, "If he asks for her," he said +to himself, "I'll give her to him." + +At Michaelmas Charles went to spend three days at the Bertaux. The last +had passed like the others, in procrastinating from hour to hour. Old +Rouault was seeing him off; they were walking along the road full of +ruts; they were about to part. This was the time. Charles gave himself +as far as to the corner of the hedge, and at last, when past it: + +"Monsieur Rouault," he murmured, "I should like to say something to +you." + +They stopped. Charles was silent. + +"Well, tell me your story. Don't I know all about it?" said old Rouault, +laughing softly. + +"Monsieur Rouault--Monsieur Rouault," stammered Charles. + +"I ask nothing better," the farmer went on. "Although, no doubt, the +little one is of my mind, still we must ask her opinion. So you get +off--I'll go back home. If it is 'yes,' you needn't return because of +all the people about, and besides it would upset her too much. But so +that you mayn't be eating your heart, I'll open wide the outer shutter +of the window against the wall; you can see it from the back by leaning +over the hedge." + +And he went off. + +Charles fastened his horse to a tree; he ran into the road and waited. +Half-an-hour passed, then he counted nineteen minutes by his watch. +Suddenly a noise was heard against the wall; the shutter had been thrown +back; the hook was still swinging. + +The next day by nine o'clock he was at the farm. Emma blushed as he +entered, and she gave a little forced laugh to keep herself in +countenance. Old Rouault embraced his future son-in-law. The discussion +of money matters was put off; moreover, there was plenty of time before +them, as the marriage could not decently take place till Charles was out +of mourning, that is to say, about the spring of the next year. + +The winter passed waiting for this. Mademoiselle Rouault was busy with +her trousseau. Part of it was ordered at Rouen, and she made herself +chemises and nightcaps after fashion-plates that she borrowed. When +Charles visited the farmer, the preparations for the wedding were talked +over; they wondered in what room they should have dinner; they dreamed +of the number of dishes that would be wanted, and what should be the +entrées. + +Emma would, on the contrary, have preferred to have a midnight wedding +with torches, but old Rouault could not understand such an idea. So +there was a wedding at which forty-three persons were present, at which +they remained sixteen hours at table, began again the next day, and to +some extent on the days following. + + + + +IV. + +CONSOLATION. + + +The guests arrived early in carriages, in one-horse chaises, two-wheeled +cars, old open gigs, wagonettes with leather hoods, and the young people +from the nearer villages in carts, in which they stood up in rows, +holding on to the sides so as not to fall, going at a trot and well +shaken up. Some came from a distance of thirty miles, from Goderville, +from Normanville, and from Cany. All the relatives of both families had +been invited, quarrels between friends arranged, acquaintances long +since lost sight of written to. + +From time to time one heard the crack of a whip behind the hedge; then +the gates opened, a chaise entered. Galloping up to the foot of the +steps, it stopped short and emptied its load. They got down from all +sides, rubbing knees and stretching arms. The ladies wearing bonnets, +had on dresses in the town fashion, gold watch chains, pelerines with +the ends tucked into belts, or little colored fichus fastened down +behind with a pin, that left the back of the neck bare. The lads, +dressed like their papas, seemed uncomfortable in their new clothes +(many that day handselled their first pair of boots), and by their +sides, speaking never a word, wearing the white dress of their first +communion lengthened for the occasion, were some big girls of fourteen +or sixteen, cousins or elder sisters no doubt, rubicund, bewildered, +their hair greasy with rose-pomade, and very much afraid of soiling +their gloves. As there were not enough stable-boys to unharness all the +carriages, the gentlemen turned up their sleeves and set about it +themselves. According to their different social positions, they wore +tail-coats, overcoats, shooting-jackets, cutaway-coats: fine tail-coats, +redolent of family respectability, that came out of the wardrobe only on +state occasions; overcoats with long tails flapping in the wind and +round capes and pockets like sacks; shooting-jackets of coarse cloth, +usually worn with a cap with a brass-bound peak; very short +cutaway-coats with two small buttons in the back, close together like a +pair of eyes, the tails of which seemed cut out of one piece by a +carpenter's hatchet. Some, too (but these, you may be sure, would sit at +the bottom of the table), wore their best blouses--that is to say, with +collars turned down to the shoulders, the back gathered into small +plaits and the waist fastened very far down with a worked belt. + +And the shirts stood out from the chests like cuirasses! Every one had +just had his hair cut; ears stood out from the heads; they had been +close-shaven; a few, even, who had had to get up before daybreak, and +not been able to see to shave, had diagonal gashes under their noses or +cuts the size of a three-franc piece along the jaws, which the fresh air +_en route_ had inflamed, so that the great, white, beaming faces were +mottled here and there with red dabs. + +The _mairie_ was a mile and a half from the farm, and they went thither +on foot, returning in the same way after the ceremony in the church. The +procession, first united like one long colored scarf that undulated +across the fields, along the narrow path winding amid the green corn, +soon lengthened out, and broke up in different groups that loitered to +talk. The fiddler walked in front with his violin, gay with ribbons in +its pegs. Then came the married pair, the relations, the friends, all +following pell-mell; the children stayed behind amusing themselves +plucking the bell-flowers from oat-ears, or playing among themselves +unseen. Emma's skirt, too long, trailed a little on the ground; from +time to time she stopped to pull it up, and then delicately, with her +gloved hands, she picked off the coarse grass and the thistledowns, +while Charles, empty handed, waited till she had finished. Old Rouault, +with a new silk hat and the cuffs of his black coat covering his hands +up to the nails, gave his arm to Madame Bovary, senior. As to Monsieur +Bovary senior, who, heartily despising all these folk, had come simply +in a frock-coat of military cut with one row of buttons--he was passing +compliments of the bar to a fair young peasant. She bowed, blushed, and +did not know what to say. The other wedding guests talked of their +business or played tricks behind each other's backs, egging one another +on in advance to be jolly. Those who listened could always catch the +squeaking of the fiddler, who went on playing across the fields. When he +saw that the rest were far behind he stopped to take breath, slowly +rosined his bow, so that the strings should sound more shrilly, then set +off again, by turns lowering and raising his neck, the better to mark +time for himself. The noise of the instrument drove the little birds far +away. + +The table was laid under the cart-shed. On it were four sirloins, six +chicken fricassées, stewed veal, three legs of mutton, and in the middle +a fine roast sucking-pig, flanked by four chitterlings with sorrel. At +the corners were decanters of brandy. Sweet bottled-cider frothed round +the corks, and all the glasses had been filled to the brim with wine +beforehand. Large dishes of yellow cream, that trembled with the least +shake of the table, had designed on their smooth surface the initials of +the newly wedded pair in nonpareil arabesques. A confectioner of Yvetot +had been intrusted with the tarts and sweets. As he had only just set up +in the place, he had taken great trouble, and at dessert he himself +brought in a set dish that evoked loud cries of wonderment. To begin +with, at its base was a square of blue cardboard, representing a temple +with porticoes, colonnades, and stucco statuettes all round, and in the +niches were constellations of gilt paper stars; on the second stage was +a dungeon of Savoy cake, surrounded by many fortifications in candied +angelica, almonds, raisins, and quarters of oranges; and finally, on the +upper layer was a green field with rocks set in lakes of jam, nutshell +boats, and a small Cupid balancing himself in a chocolate swing, whose +two uprights ended in real roses for balls at the top. + +Until night they ate. When any of them were too tired of sitting, they +went out for a stroll in the yard, or for a game with corks in the +granary, and then returned to table. Toward the finish some went to +sleep and snored. But with the coffee every one woke up. Then they began +songs, showed off tricks, raised heavy weights, performed feats with +their fingers, then tried lifting carts on their shoulders, made broad +jokes, kissed the women. At night when they left, the horses, stuffed up +to the nostrils with oats, could hardly be got into the shafts; they +kicked, reared, the harness broke, their masters laughed or swore; and +all night in the light of the moon along country roads there were +runaway carts at full gallop plunging into the ditches, jumping over +yard after yard of stones, clambering up the hills, with women leaning +out from the tilt to catch hold of the reins. + +Those who stayed at the Bertaux spent the night drinking in the kitchen. +The children had fallen asleep under the seats. + +The bride had begged her father to be spared the usual marriage +pleasantries. However, a fishmonger, one of their cousins (who had even +brought a pair of soles for his wedding present), began to squirt water +from his mouth through the keyhole, when old Rouault came up just in +time to stop him, and explain to him that the distinguished position of +his son-in-law would not allow of such liberties. The cousin all the +same did not give in to these reasons readily. In his heart he accused +old Rouault of being proud, and he joined four or five other guests in a +corner, who having, through mere chance, been several times running +served with the worst helps of meat, also were of opinion they had been +badly used, and were whispering about their host, and with covered hints +hoping he would ruin himself. + +Madame Bovary, senior, had not opened her mouth all day. She had been +consulted neither as to the dress of her daughter-in-law nor as to the +arrangement of the feast; she went to bed early. Her husband, instead +of following her, sent to Saint-Victor for some cigars, and smoked till +daybreak, drinking kirsch-punch, a mixture unknown to the company. This +added greatly to the consideration in which he was held. + +Charles, who was not of a facetious turn, did not shine at the wedding. +He answered feebly to the puns, _doubles entendres_, compliments, and +chaff that it was felt a duty to let off at him as soon as the soup +appeared. + +The next day, on the other hand, he seemed another man. It was he who +might rather have been taken for the virgin of the evening before, +whilst the bride gave no sign that revealed anything. The shrewdest did +not know what to make of it, and they looked at her when she passed near +them with an unbounded concentration of mind. But Charles concealed +nothing. He called her "my wife," _tutoyéd_ her, asked for her of every +one, looked for her everywhere, and often he dragged her into the yards +where he could be seen from afar, among the trees putting his arm round +her waist, and walking half bending over her, ruffling the chemisette of +her bodice with his head. + +Two days after the wedding the married pair left. Charles, on account of +his patients, could not be away longer. Old Rouault had them driven back +in his cart, and himself accompanied them as far as Vassonville. Here he +embraced his daughter for the last time, got down, and went his way. +When he had gone about a hundred paces he stopped, and as he saw the +cart disappearing, its wheels turning in the dust, he gave a deep sigh. +Then he remembered his wedding, the old times, the first pregnancy of +his wife; he, too, had been very happy the day when he had taken her +from her father to his home, and had carried her off on a pillion, +trotting through the snow, for it was near Christmas-time, and the +country was all white. She held him by one arm, her basket hanging from +the other; the wind blew the long lace of her Cauchois head-dress so +that it sometimes flapped across his mouth, and when he turned his head +he saw near him, on his shoulder, her little rosy face, smiling silently +under the gold bands of her cap. To warm her hands she put them from +time to time in his breast. How long ago it all was! Their son would +have been thirty by now. Then he looked back and saw nothing on the +road. He felt dreary as an empty house; and tender memories mingling +with the sad thoughts in his brain, addled by the fumes of the feast, he +felt inclined for a moment to take a turn towards the church. As he was +afraid, however, that this sight would make him yet more sad, he went +directly home. + +Monsieur and Madame Charles arrived at Tostes about six o'clock. The +neighbors came to the windows to see their doctor's new wife. + +The old servant presented herself, curtsied to her, apologised for not +having dinner ready, and suggested that madame, in the meantime, should +look over her house. + + + + +V. + +THE NEW MÉNAGE. + + +The brick front was just in a line with the street, or rather the road. +Behind the door hung a cloak with a small collar, a bridle, and a black +leather cap, and on the floor in a corner, were a pair of leggings still +covered with dry mud. On the right was the one apartment that was both +dining and sitting room. A canary-yellow paper, relieved at the top by a +garland of pale flowers, was puckered everywhere over the +badly-stretched canvas; white calico curtains with a red border hung +crosswise the length of the window; and on the narrow mantelpiece a +clock with a head of Hippocrates shone resplendent between two plate +candlesticks under oval shades. On the other side of the passage was +Charles's consulting-room, a little room about six paces wide, with a +table, three chairs, and an office-chair. Volumes of the "Dictionary of +Medical Science," uncut, but the binding rather the worse for the +successive sales through which they had gone, occupied almost alone the +six shelves of a deal bookcase. The smell of melted butter penetrated +the thin walls when he saw patients, just as in the kitchen one could +hear the people coughing in the consulting-room and recounting their +whole histories. Then, opening on the yard, where the stable was, came a +large dilapidated room with a stove, now used as a wood-house, cellar, +and pantry, full of old rubbish, of empty casks, agricultural implements +past service, and a mass of dusty things whose use it was impossible to +guess. + +The garden, longer than wide, ran between two mud walls with espaliered +apricots, to a hawthorn hedge that separated it from the field. In the +middle was a slate sundial on a brick pedestal; four flower-beds with +eglantines surrounded symmetrically the more useful kitchen-garden bed. +At the bottom, under the spruce bushes, was a curé in plaster reading +his breviary. + +Emma went upstairs. The first room was not furnished, but in the second, +which was their bedroom, was a mahogany bedstead in an alcove with red +drapery. A shell-box adorned the chest of drawers, and on the secretary +near the window a bouquet of orange blossoms tied with white satin +ribbons stood in a bottle. It was a bride's bouquet; it was the other +one's. She looked at it. Charles noticed it; he took it and carried it +up to the attic, while Emma, seated in an armchair (they were putting +her things down around her) thought of her bridal flowers packed up in a +bandbox, and wondered, dreaming, what would be done with them if she +were to die. + +During the first days she occupied herself in thinking about changes in +the house. She took the shades off the candlesticks, had new wall-paper +put up, the staircase repainted, and seats made in the garden round the +sundial; she even inquired how she could get a basin with a jet fountain +and fishes. Finally, her husband, knowing that she liked to drive out, +picked up a second-hand dog-cart, which, with new lamps and a +splash-board in striped leather, looked almost like a tilbury. + +He was happy then, and without a care in the world. A meal together, a +walk in the evening on the highroad, a gesture of her hands over her +hair, the sight of her straw hat hanging from the window-fastener, and +many another thing in which Charles had never dreamed of pleasure, now +made up the endless round of his happiness. In bed, in the morning, by +her side, on the pillow, he watched the sunlight sinking into the down +on her fair cheek, half hidden by the lappets of her nightcap. Seen thus +closely, her eyes looked to him enlarged, especially when, on waking up, +she opened and shut them rapidly many times. Black in the shade, dark +blue in broad daylight, they had, as it were, depths of different +colors, that, darker in the center, grew paler toward the surface of the +eye. His own eyes lost themselves in these depths; he saw himself in +miniature down to the shoulders, with his handkerchief round his head +and the top of his shirt open. He rose. She came to the window to see +him off, and stayed leaning on the sill between two pots of geranium, +clad in her dressing-gown hanging loosely about her. Charles in the +street buckled his spurs, his foot on the mounting stone, while she +talked to him from above, picking with her mouth some scrap of flower or +leaf that she blew out at him. Then this, eddying, floating, described +semicircles in the air like a bird, and was caught before it reached the +ground in the ill-groomed mane of the old white mare standing motionless +at the door. Charles from horseback threw her a kiss; she answered with +a nod; she shut the window, and he set off. And then along the highroad, +spreading out its long ribbon of dust, along the deep lanes that the +trees bent over as in arbors, along paths where the corn reached to the +knees, with the sun on his back and the morning air in his nostrils, his +heart full of the joys of the past night, his mind at rest, his flesh at +ease, he went on, re-chewing his happiness, like those who after dinner +taste again the truffles which they are digesting. + +Until now what good had he had of his life? His time at school, when he +remained shut up within the high walls, alone, in the midst of +companions richer than he or cleverer at their work, who laughed at his +accent, who jeered at his clothes, and whose mothers came to the school +with cakes in their muffs? Or later, when he studied medicine, and never +had his purse full enough to treat some little work-girl who would have +become his mistress? Afterwards, he had lived fourteen months with the +widow, whose feet in bed were cold as icicles. But now he had for life +this beautiful woman whom he adored. For him the universe did not extend +beyond the circumference of her petticoat, and he reproached himself +with not loving her. He wanted to see her again; he turned back quickly, +ran up the stairs with a beating heart. Emma, in her room, was dressing; +he came up on tiptoe, kissed her back; she gave a cry. + +He could not keep from continually touching her comb, her rings, her +fichu; sometimes he gave her great sounding kisses with all his mouth on +her cheeks, or else little kisses in a row all along her bare arm from +the tip of her fingers up to her shoulder, and she put him away +half-smiling, half-vexed, as you do a child who hangs about you. + +Before marriage she thought herself in love; but the happiness that +should have followed this love not having come, she must, she thought, +have been mistaken. And Emma tried to find out what one meant exactly in +life by the words _felicity_, _passion_, _rapture_, that had seemed to +her so beautiful in books. + + + + +VI. + +A MAIDEN'S YEARNINGS. + + +She had read "Paul and Virginia," and she had dreamed of the little +bamboo-house, the nigger Domingo, the dog Fidèle, but above all the +sweet friendship of some dear little brother, who seeks red fruit for +you on trees taller than steeples, or who runs barefoot over the sand, +bringing you a bird's nest. + +When she was thirteen, her father himself took her to town to place her +in the convent. They stopped at an inn in the St. Gervais quarter, +where, at their supper, they used painted plates that set forth the +story of Mademoiselle de la Vallière. The explanatory legends, chipped +here and there by the scratching of knives, all glorified religion, the +tendernesses of the heart, and the pomps of court. + +Far from being bored at first at the convent, she took pleasure in the +society of the good sisters who, to amuse her, took her to the chapel, +which one entered from the refectory by a long corridor. She played very +little during recreation hours, knew her catechism well, and it was she +who always answered Monsieur le Vicaire's difficult questions. Living +thus, without ever leaving the warm atmosphere of the class-rooms, and +amid these pale-faced women wearing rosaries with brass crosses, she was +softly lulled by the mystic languor exhaled in the perfumes of the +altar, the freshness of the holy water, and the lights of the tapers. +Instead of attending to mass, she looked at the pious vignettes with +their azure borders in her book, and she loved the sick lamb, the sacred +heart pierced with sharp arrows, or the poor Jesus sinking beneath the +cross he carries. She tried, by way of mortification, to eat nothing a +whole day. She puzzled her head to find some vow to fulfill. + +When she went to confession, she invented little sins in order that she +might stay there longer, kneeling in the shadow, her hands joined, her +face against the grating beneath the whispering of the priest. The +comparisons of betrothed, husband, celestial lover, and eternal +marriage, that recur in sermons, stirred within her soul depths of +unexpected sweetness. + +In the evening, before prayers, there was some religious reading in the +study. On week-nights it was some abstract of sacred history or the +Lectures of the Abbé Frayssinous, and on Sundays passages from the +"Génie du Christianisme," as a recreation. How she listened at first to +the sonorous lamentations of its romantic melancholies re-echoing +through the world and eternity! If her childhood had been spent in the +shop-parlor of some business quarter, she might perhaps have opened her +heart to those lyrical invasions of Nature, which usually come to us +only through translation in books. But she knew the country too well; +she knew the lowing of cattle, the milking, the plow. Accustomed to calm +aspects of life, she turned, on the contrary, to those of excitement. +She loved the sea only for the sake of its storms, and the green fields +only when broken up by ruins. She wanted to get some personal profit out +of things, and she rejected as useless all that did not contribute to +the immediate desires of her heart, being of a temperament more +sentimental than artistic, looking for emotions, not landscapes. + +At the convent there was an old maid who came for a week each month to +mend the linen. Patronized by the clergy, because she belonged to an +ancient family of noblemen ruined by the Revolution, she dined in the +refectory at the table of the good sisters, and after the meal had a bit +of chat with them before going back to her work. The girls often slipped +out from the study to go and see her. She knew by heart the love-songs +of the last century, and sang them in a low voice as she stitched away. +She told stories, gave them news, went errands in the town, and on the +sly lent the big girls some novel, that she always carried in the +pockets of her apron, and of which the good lady herself swallowed long +chapters in the intervals of her work. They were all love, lovers, +sweethearts, persecuted ladies fainting in lonely pavilions, postilions +killed at every stage, horses ridden to death on every page, somber +forests, heartaches, vows, sobs, tears and kisses, little skiffs by +moonlight, nightingales in shady groves, "gentlemen" brave as lions, +gentle as lambs, virtuous as no one ever was, always well dressed, and +weeping like fountains. For six months, then, Emma, at fifteen years of +age, made her hands dirty with books from old lending libraries. With +Walter Scott, later on, she fell in love with historical events, dreamed +of old chests, guardrooms and minstrels. She would have liked to live in +some old manor-house, like those long-waisted châtelaines who, in the +shade of pointed arches, spent their days leaning on the stone, chin in +hand, watching a cavalier with white plume galloping on his black horse +from the distant fields. At this time she had a cult for Mary Stuart and +enthusiastic veneration for illustrious or unhappy women. Joan of Arc, +Héloise, Agnès Sorel, the beautiful Ferronnière, and Clémence Isaure +stood out to her like comets in the dark immensity of heaven, where also +were seen, lost in shadow and all unconnected, St. Louis with his oak, +the dying Bayard, some cruelties of Louis XI, a little of St. +Bartholomew's, the plume of the Béarnais, and always the remembrance of +the plates painted in honor of Louis XIV. + +In the music-class, in the ballads she sang, there was nothing but +little angels with golden wings, madonnas, lagunes, gondoliers;--mild +compositions that allowed her to catch a glimpse athwart the obscurity +of style and the weakness of the music of the attractive phantasmagoria +of sentimental realities. Some of her companions brought "keepsakes" +given them as New Year's gifts to the convent. These had to be hidden; +it was quite an undertaking; they were read in the dormitory. Delicately +handling the beautiful satin bindings, Emma looked with dazzled eyes at +the names of the unknown authors, who had signed their verses for the +most part as counts or viscounts. + +She trembled as she blew back the tissue paper over the engraving and +saw it folded in two and fall gently against the page. Here behind the +balustrade of a balcony was a young man in a short cloak, holding in his +arms a young girl in a white dress wearing an alms-bag at her belt; or +there were nameless portraits of English ladies with fair curls, who +looked at you from under their round straw hats with their large clear +eyes. Some there were lounging in their carriages, gliding through +parks, a greyhound bounding along in front of the equipage, driven at a +trot by two small postilions in white breeches. Others, dreaming on +sofas with an open letter, gazed at the moon through a slightly open +window half draped by a black curtain. The naïve ones, a tear on their +cheeks, were kissing doves through the bars of a Gothic cage, or, +smiling, their heads on one side, were plucking the leaves of a +marguerite with their taper fingers, that curved at the tips like peaked +shoes. And you too were there, Sultans with long pipes, reclining +beneath arbors in the arms of Bayadères; Djiaours, Turkish sabers, Greek +caps; and you especially, pale landscapes of dithyrambic lands, that +often show us at once palm-trees and firs, tigers on the right, a lion +to the left, Tartar minarets on the horizon; the whole framed by a very +neat virgin forest, and with a great perpendicular sunbeam trembling in +the water, where, standing out in relief like white excoriations on a +steel-grey ground, swans are swimming about. + +And the shade of the argand lamp fastened to the wall above Emma's head +lighted up all these pictures of the world, that passed before her one +by one in the silence of the dormitory, to the distant noise of some +belated carriage rolling over the Boulevards. + +When her mother died she cried much the first few days. She had a +funeral picture made with the hair of the deceased, and, in a letter +sent to the Bertaux full of sad reflections on life, she asked to be +buried some day in the same grave. The goodman thought she must be ill, +and came to see her. Emma was secretly pleased that she had reached at +a first attempt the rare ideal of pale lives, never attained by mediocre +hearts. She let herself glide along with Lamartine meanderings, listened +to harps on lakes, to all the songs of dying swans, to the falling of +the leaves, the pure virgins ascending to heaven, and the voice of the +Eternal discoursing down the valleys. She wearied of it, would not +confess it, continued from habit, and at last was surprised to feel +herself soothed, and with no more sadness at heart than wrinkles on her +brow. + +The good nuns, who had been so sure of her vocation, perceived with +great astonishment that Mademoiselle Rouault seemed to be slipping from +them. They had indeed been so lavish to her of prayers, retreats, +novenas, and sermons, they had so often preached the respect due to +saints and martyrs, and given so much good advice as to the modesty of +the body and the salvation of her soul, that she did as tightly reined +horses: she pulled up short and the bit slipped from her teeth. This +nature, positive in the midst of its enthusiasms, that had loved the +church for the sake of the flowers, and music for the words of the +songs, and literature for its passional stimulus, rebelled against the +mysteries of faith as it grew irritated by discipline, a thing +antipathetic to her constitution. When her father took her from school, +no one was sorry to see her go. The Lady Superior even thought that she +had latterly been somewhat irreverent to the community. + +Emma at home once more, first took pleasure in looking after the +servants, then grew disgusted with the country and missed her convent. +When Charles came to the Bertaux for the first time, she thought +herself quite disillusioned, with nothing more to learn, and nothing +more to feel. + +But the uneasiness of her new position, or perhaps the disturbance +caused by the presence of this man, had sufficed to make her believe +that she at last felt that wondrous passion which, till then, like a +great bird with rose-colored wings, had hung in the splendor of the +skies of poesy; and now she could not think that the calm in which she +lived was the happiness she had dreamed. + + + + +VII. + +DISILLUSION. + + +She thought sometimes that, after all, this was the happiest time of her +life--the honeymoon, as people called it. To taste the full sweetness of +it, it would have been necessary doubtless to fly to those lands with +sonorous names where the days after marriage are full of laziness most +suave. In post-chaises behind blue silken curtains to ride slowly up +steep roads, listening to the song of the postilion re-echoed by the +mountains, along with the bells of goats and the muffled sound of a +waterfall; at sunset on the shores of gulfs to breathe in the perfume of +lemon-trees; then in the evening on the villa-terraces above, hand in +hand to look at the stars, making plans for the future. It seemed to her +that certain places on earth must bring happiness, as a plant peculiar +to the soil, that cannot thrive elsewhere. Why could not she lean over +balconies in Swiss châlets, or enshrine her melancholy in a Scotch +cottage, with a husband dressed in a black velvet coat with long tails, +and thin shoes, a pointed hat and frills? + +Perhaps she would have liked to confide all these things to some one. +But how tell an undefinable uneasiness, variable as the clouds, unstable +as the winds? Words failed her--the opportunity, the courage. + +If Charles had but wished it, if he had guessed it, if his look had but +once met her thought, it seemed to her that a sudden plenty would have +gone out from her heart, as the fruit falls from a tree when shaken by a +hand. But as the intimacy of their life became deeper, the greater +became the gulf that separated her from him. + +Charles's conversation was commonplace as a street pavement, and every +one's ideas trooped through it in their everyday garb, without exciting +emotion, laughter, or thought. He had never had the curiosity, he said, +while he lived at Rouen, to go to the theatre to see the actors from +Paris. He could neither swim, nor fence, nor shoot, and one day he could +not explain some term of horsemanship to her that she had come across in +a novel. + +A man, on the contrary, should he not know everything, excel in manifold +activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements +of life, all mysteries? But this one taught nothing, knew nothing, +wished nothing. He thought her happy; and she resented this easy calm, +this serene heaviness, the very happiness she gave him. + +Sometimes she would draw; and it was great amusement to Charles to stand +there bolt upright and watch her bend over her cardboard, with eyes +half-closed the better to see her work, or rolling, between her fingers, +little bread-pellets. As to the piano, the more quickly her fingers +glided over it the more he wondered. She struck the notes with aplomb, +and ran from top to bottom of the keyboard without a break. Thus shaken +up, the old instrument, whose strings buzzed, could be heard at the +other end of the village when the window was open, and often the +bailiff's clerk, passing along the highroad bareheaded and in list +slippers, stopped to listen, his sheet of paper in his hand. + +Emma, on the other hand, knew how to look after her house. She sent the +patients' accounts in well-phrased letters that had no suggestion of a +bill. When they had a neighbor to dinner on Sundays, she managed to have +some dainty dish--piled up pyramids of green-gages on vine leaves, +served up preserves turned out into plates--and even spoke of buying +finger-glasses for dessert. From all this, much consideration was +extended to Bovary. + +Charles finished by rising in his own esteem for possessing such a wife. +He showed with pride in the sitting-room two small pencil sketches by +her that he had had framed in very large frames, and hung up against the +wall-paper by long green cords. People returning from mass saw him at +his door in his wool-work slippers. + +He came home late--at ten o'clock, at midnight sometimes. Then he asked +for something to eat, and as the servant had gone to bed, Emma waited on +him. He took off his coat to dine more at his ease. He told her, one +after the other, the people he had met, the villages where he had been, +the prescriptions he had written, and, well pleased with himself, he +finished the remainder of the boiled beef and onions, picked pieces off +the cheese, munched an apple, emptied his water-bottle, and then went to +bed, and lay on his back and snored. + +As he had been for a time accustomed to wear nightcaps, his handkerchief +would not keep down over his ears, so that his hair in the morning was +all tumbled pell-mell about his face and whitened with the feathers of +the pillow, whose strings came untied during the night. He always wore +thick boots that had two long creases over the instep running obliquely +towards the ankle, while the rest of the upper continued in a straight +line as if stretched on a wooden foot. He said that was "quite good +enough for the country." + +His mother approved of his economy, for she came to see him as formerly +when there had been some violent scene at her place; and yet Madame +Bovary senior seemed prejudiced against her daughter-in-law. She thought +"her ways too fine for their position;" the wood, the sugar, and the +candles disappeared as at "a grand establishment," and the amount of +firing in the kitchen would have been enough for twenty-five courses. +She put her linen in order for her in the presses, and taught her to +keep an eye on the butcher when he brought the meat. Emma put up with +these lessons. Madame Bovary was lavish of them; and the words +"daughter" and "mother" were exchanged all day long, accompanied by +little quiverings of the lips, each one uttering gentle words in a voice +trembling with anger. + +In Madame Dubuc's time the old woman felt that she was still the +favorite; but now the love of Charles for Emma seemed to her a desertion +from her tenderness, an encroachment upon what was hers, and she watched +her son's happiness in sad silence, as a ruined man looks through the +windows at people dining in his old house. She recalled to him as +remembrances her troubles and her sacrifices, and, comparing these with +Emma's negligence, came to the conclusion that it was not reasonable to +adore her so exclusively. + +Charles knew not what to answer: he respected his mother, and he loved +his wife infinitely; he considered the judgment of the one infallible, +and yet he thought the conduct of the other irreproachable. When Madame +Bovary had gone he tried timidly and in the same terms to hazard one or +two of the more anodyne observations he had heard from his mamma Emma +proved to him with a word that he was mistaken, and sent him off to his +patients. + +And yet, in accord with theories she believed right, she desired to make +herself in love with him. By moonlight in the garden she recited all the +passionate rhymes she knew by heart, and, sighing, sang to him many +melancholy adagios; but she found herself as calm after this as before, +and Charles seemed no more amorous and no more moved. + +When she had thus for a while struck the flint of her heart without +getting a spark, incapable, moreover, of understanding what she did not +experience as of believing anything that did not present itself in +conventional forms, she persuaded herself without difficulty that +Charles's passion was nothing very exorbitant. His outbursts became +regular; he embraced her at certain fixed times. It was one habit among +other habits, and, like a dessert, looked forward to after the monotony +of dinner. + +A gamekeeper, cured by the doctor of inflammation of the lungs, had +given madame a little Italian greyhound; she took her out walking, for +she went out sometimes in order to be alone for a moment, and not to see +before her eyes the eternal garden and the dusty road. She went as far +as the beeches of Banneville, near the deserted pavilion which forms an +angle of the wall on the side of the country. Amid the vegetation of +the ditch there are long reeds with leaves that cut. + +She began by looking round her to see if nothing had changed since last +she had been there. She found again in the same places the foxgloves and +wallflowers, the beds of nettles growing round the big stones, and the +patches of lichen along the three windows, whose shutters, always +closed, were rotting away on their rusty iron bars. Her thoughts, +aimless at first, wandered at random, like her greyhound, who ran round +and round in the fields, yelping after the yellow butterflies, chasing +the shrew-mice, or nibbling the poppies on the edge of a cornfield. Then +gradually her ideas took definite shape, and, sitting on the grass that +she dug up with little prods of her sunshade, Emma repeated to herself, +"Good heavens! why did I marry?" + +She asked herself if by some other chance combination it would not have +been possible to meet another man; and she tried to imagine what would +have been these unrealized events, this different life, this unknown +husband. All, surely, could not be like this one. He might have been +handsome, witty, distinguished, attractive, such as, no doubt, her old +companions of the convent had married. What were they doing now? In +town, with the noise of the streets, the buzz of the theaters, and the +lights of the ball-room, they were living lives where the heart expands, +the senses bourgeon out. But she--her life was cold as a garret whose +dormer-window looks on the north, and ennui, the silent spider, was +weaving its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart. She +recalled the prize-days, when she mounted the platform to receive her +little crowns, with her hair in long plaits. In her white frock and +open prunella shoes she had a pretty way, and when she went back to her +seat, the gentlemen bent over her to congratulate her; the courtyard was +full of carriages; farewells were called to her through their windows; +the music-master with his violin-case bowed in passing by. How far off +all this! How far away! + +She called Djali, took her between her knees, and smoothed the long, +delicate head, saying, "Come, kiss mistress; you have no troubles." + +Then noting the melancholy face of the graceful animal, who yawned +slowly, she softened, and comparing her to herself, spoke to her aloud +as to somebody in trouble whom one is consoling. + +Occasionally there came gusts of wind, breezes from the sea rolling in +one sweep over the whole plateau of the Caux country, which brought even +to these fields a salt freshness. The rushes, close to the ground, +whistled; the branches trembled in a swift rustling, while their +summits, ceaselessly swaying, kept up a deep murmur. Emma drew her shawl +round her shoulders and rose. + +In the avenue a green light dimmed by the leaves lighted the short moss +that crackled softly beneath her feet. The sun was setting; the sky +showed red between the branches, and the trunks of the trees, uniform, +and planted in a straight line, seemed a brown colonnade standing out +against a background of gold. A fear took hold of her; she called Djali, +and hurriedly returned to Tostes by the highroad, threw herself into an +armchair, and for the rest of the evening did not speak. + +But towards the end of September something extraordinary fell upon her +life; she was invited by the Marquis d'Andervilliers to Vaubyessard. + +Secretary of State under the Restoration, the Marquis, anxious to +re-enter political life, set about preparing for his candidature to the +Chamber of Deputies long beforehand. In the winter he distributed a +great deal of wood, and in the Conseil Général always enthusiastically +demanded new roads for his arrondissement. During the dog-days he had +suffered from an abscess, which Charles had cured as if by miracle by +giving a timely little touch with the lancet. The steward sent to Tostes +to pay for the operation reported in the evening that he had seen some +superb cherries in the doctor's little garden. Now cherry-trees did not +thrive at Vaubyessard; the Marquis asked Bovary for some slips; made it +his business to thank him personally; saw Emma; thought she had a pretty +figure, and that she did not bow like a peasant; so that he did not +think he was going beyond the bounds of condescension, nor, on the other +hand, making a mistake, in inviting the young couple. + +One Wednesday at three o'clock, Monsieur and Madame Bovary, seated in +their dog-cart, set out for Vaubyessard, with a great trunk strapped on +behind and a bonnet-box in front on the apron. Besides these Charles +held a bandbox between his knees. + +They arrived at nightfall, just as the lamps in the park were being +lighted to show the carriage-drive. + + + + +VIII. + +GLIMPSES OF THE WORLD. + + +The château, a modern building in Italian style, with two projecting +wings and three flights of steps, lay at the foot of an immense +green-sward, on which some cows were grazing among groups of large trees +set out at regular intervals, while large beds of arbutus, rhododendron, +syringas, and guelder roses bulged out their irregular clusters of green +along the curve of the gravel path. A river flowed under a bridge; +through the mist one could distinguish buildings with thatched roofs +scattered over the field bordered by two gently-sloping well-timbered +hillocks, and in the background amid the trees rose in two parallel +lines the coach-houses and stables, all that was left of the ruined old +château. + +Charles's dog-cart pulled up before the middle flight of steps; servants +appeared; the Marquis came forward, and offering his arm to the doctor's +wife, conducted her to the vestibule. + +It was paved with marble slabs, was very lofty, and the sound of +footsteps and that of voices re-echoed through it as in a church. +Opposite rose a straight staircase, and on the left a gallery +overlooking the garden led to the billiard-room, through whose door one +could hear the click of the ivory balls. As she crossed it to go to the +drawing-room, Emma saw standing round the table men with grave faces, +their chins resting on high cravats. They all wore orders, and smiled +silently as they made their strokes. On the dark wainscoting of the +walls large gold frames bore at the bottom names written in black +letters. She read: + + "Jean-Antoine d'Andervilliers d'Yverbonville, Count de la + Vaubyessard and Baron de la Fresnaye, killed at the battle of + Coutras on the 20th of October 1587." + +And on another: + + "Jean-Antoine-Henry-Guy d'Andervilliers de la Vaubyessard, Admiral + of France and Chevalier of the Order of St. Michael, wounded at the + battle of the Hougue-Saint-Vaast on the 29th of May 1692; died at + Vaubyessard on the 23rd of January 1693." + +One could hardly make out those that followed, for the light of the +lamps lowered over the green cloth threw a dim shadow round the room. +Burnishing the horizontal pictures, it broke up against these in +delicate lines where there were cracks in the varnish, and from all +these great black squares framed in with gold stood out here and there +some lighter portion of the painting--a pale brow, two eyes that looked +at you, perukes flowing over and powdering red-coated shoulders, or the +buckle of a garter above a well-rounded calf. + +The Marquis opened the drawing-room door; one of the ladies (the +Marchioness herself) came to meet Emma. She made her sit down by her on +an ottoman, and began talking to her as amicably as if she had known her +a long time. She was about forty years old, with fine shoulders, a hook +nose, a drawling voice, and on this evening she wore over her brown hair +a simple guipure fichu that fell in a point at the back. A fair young +woman was by her side in a high-backed chair, and gentlemen with flowers +in their buttonholes were talking to ladies round the fire. + +At seven dinner was served. The men, who were in the majority, sat down +at the first table in the vestibule; the ladies at the second in the +dining-room with the Marquis and Marchioness. + +Emma, on entering, felt herself wrapped round by the warm air, a +blending of the perfume of flowers and of the fine linen, of the fumes +of the viands, and the odor of the truffles. The silver dish-covers +reflected the lighted wax candles in the candelabra, the cut crystal +covered with light steam reflected pale rays from one to the other; +bouquets were placed in a row the whole length of the table; and in the +large-bordered plates each napkin, arranged after the fashion of a +bishop's miter, held between its two gaping folds a small oval-shaped +roll. The red claws of lobsters hung over the dishes; rich fruit in open +baskets was piled up on moss; there were quails in their plumage; smoke +was rising; and in silk stockings, knee-breeches, white cravat, and +frilled shirt, the steward, grave as a judge, offered ready-carved +dishes between the shoulders of the guests, and with a touch of the +spoon gave the piece chosen. On the large stove of porcelain inlaid with +copper baguettes the statue of a woman, draped to the chin, gazed +motionless on the room full of life. + +Madame Bovary noticed that many ladies had not put their gloves in their +glasses. + +But at the upper end of the table, alone among all those women, bent +over his full plate, with his napkin tied round his neck like a child, +an old man sat eating, letting drops of gravy drip from his mouth. His +eyes were bloodshot, and he wore a little queue tied with a black +ribbon. He was the Marquis's father-in-law, the old Duke de Laverdière, +once on a time favorite of the Count d'Artois, in the days of the +Vaudreuil hunting-parties at the Marquis de Conflans', and had been, it +was said, the lover of Queen Marie Antoinette, between Monsieur de +Coigny and Monsieur de Lauzun. He had lived a life of noisy debauch, +full of duels, bets, elopements; he had squandered his fortune and +frightened all his family. A servant behind his chair named aloud to him +in his ear the dishes that he pointed to, stammering, and constantly +Emma's eyes turned involuntarily to this old man with hanging lips, as +to something extraordinary. He had lived at court and slept in the bed +of queens! + +Iced champagne was poured out. Emma shivered all over as she felt it +cold in her mouth. She had never seen pomegranates nor tasted +pine-apples. The powdered sugar even seemed to her whiter and finer than +elsewhere. + +The ladies afterward went to their rooms to prepare for the ball. + +Emma made her toilet with the fastidious care of an actress on her +début. She did her hair according to the directions of the hairdresser, +and put on the barège dress spread out upon the bed. Charles's trousers +were tight across the belly. + +"My trouser-straps will be rather awkward for dancing," he said. + +"Dancing?" repeated Emma. + +"Yes!" + +"Why, you must be mad! They would make fun of you; keep your place. +Besides, it is more becoming for a doctor," she added. + +Charles was silent. He walked up and down waiting for Emma to finish +dressing. + +He saw her from behind in the glass between two lights. Her black eyes +seemed blacker than ever. Her hair, undulating toward the ears, shone +with a blue luster; a rose in her chignon trembled on its mobile stalk, +with artificial dewdrops on the tips of the leaves. She wore a gown of +pale saffron trimmed with three bouquets of pompon roses mixed with +green. + +Charles came and kissed her on her shoulder. + +"Let me alone!" she said; "you are tumbling me." + +One could hear the flourish of the violin and the notes of a horn. She +went downstairs restraining herself from running. + +Dancing had begun. Guests were arriving. There was some crushing. She +sat down on a form near the door. + +The quadrille over, the floor was occupied by groups of men standing up +and talking and servants in livery bearing large trays. Along the line +of seated women painted fans were fluttering, bouquets half-hid smiling +faces, and gold-stoppered scent-bottles were turned in partly-closed +hands, whose white gloves outlined the nails and tightened on the flesh +at the wrists. Lace trimmings, diamond brooches, medallion bracelets +trembled on bodices, gleamed on breasts, clinked on bare arms. The hair, +well smoothed over the temples and knotted at the nape, bore crowns, or +bunches, or sprays of myosotis, jasmine, pomegranate blossoms, ears of +corn, and cornflowers. Calmly seated in their places, mothers with +forbidding countenances were wearing red turbans. + +Emma's heart beat rather faster when, her partner holding her by the +tips of the fingers, she took her place in a line with the dancers, and +waited for the first note to start. But her emotion soon vanished, and, +swaying to the rhythm of the orchestra, she glided forward with slight +movements of the neck. A smile rose to her lips at certain delicate +phrases of the violin, that sometimes played alone while the other +instruments were silent; one could hear the clear clink of the +louis-d'or that were being thrown down upon the card-tables in the next +room; then all struck in again, the cornet-à-piston uttered its sonorous +note, feet marked time, skirts swelled and rustled, hands touched and +parted; the same eyes falling before you met yours again. + +A few men (some fifteen or so), of twenty-five to forty, scattered here +and there among the dancers or talking at the doorways, distinguished +themselves from the crowd by a certain air of breeding, whatever their +differences in age, dress, or face. + +Their clothes, better made, seemed of finer cloth, and their hair, +brought forward in curls towards the temples, glossy with more delicate +pomades. They had the complexion of wealth,--that clear complexion that +is heightened by the pallor of porcelain, the shimmer of satin, the +veneer of old furniture, and that an ordered regimen of exquisite +nurture maintains at its best. Their necks moved easily in their low +cravats, their long whiskers fell over their turned-down collars, they +wiped their lips upon handkerchiefs, with embroidered initials, that +gave forth a subtle perfume. Those who were beginning to grow old had an +air of youth, while there was something mature in the faces of the +young. In their unconcerned looks was the calm of passions daily +satiated, and through all their gentleness of manner pierced that +peculiar brutality, the result of a command of half-easy things, in +which force is exercised and vanity amused--the management of +thoroughbred horses and the society of loose women. + +A few steps from Emma a gentleman in a blue coat was talking of Italy +with a pale young woman wearing a parure of pearls. + +They were praising the breadth of the columns of St. Peter's, Tivoli, +Vesuvius, Castellamare, and Cassines, the roses of Genoa, the Coliseum +by moonlight. With her other ear Emma was listening to a conversation +full of words she did not understand. A circle gathered round a very +young man who the week before had beaten "Miss Arabella" and "Romulus," +and won two thousand louis jumping a ditch in England. One complained +that his racehorses were growing fat; another of the printers' errors +that had disfigured the name of his horse. + +The atmosphere of the ball was heavy; the lamps were growing dim. Guests +were flocking to the billiard-room. A servant got upon a chair and broke +the window-panes. At the crash of the glass Madame Bovary turned her +head and saw in the garden the faces of peasants pressed against the +window looking in at them. Then the memory of the Bertaux came back to +her. She saw the farm again, the muddy pond, her father in a blouse +under the apple-trees, and she saw herself again as formerly, skimming +with her finger the cream off the milk-pans in the dairy. But in the +refulgence of the present hour her past life, so distinct until then, +faded away completely, and she almost doubted having lived it. She was +there; beyond the ball was only shadow overspreading all the rest. She +was just eating a maraschino ice that she held with her left hand in a +silver-gilt cup, her eyes half-closed, and the spoon between her teeth. + +A lady near her dropped her fan. A gentleman was passing. + +"Would you be so good," said the lady, "as to pick up my fan that has +fallen behind the sofa?" + +The gentleman bowed, and as he moved to stretch out his arm, Emma saw +the hand of the young woman throw something white, folded in a triangle, +into his hat. The gentleman picking up the fan, offered it to the lady +respectfully; she thanked him with an inclination of the head, and began +smelling her bouquet. + +After supper, where were plenty of Spanish and Rhine wines, soups _à la +bisque_ and _au lait d'amandes_, puddings _à la Trafalgar_, and all +sorts of cold meats with jellies that trembled in the dishes, the +carriages one after the other began to drive off. Raising the corner of +the muslin curtain, one could see the light of their lanterns glimmering +through the darkness. The seats began to empty, some card-players were +still left; the musicians were cooling the tips of their fingers on +their tongues. Charles was half asleep, his back propped against a door. + +At three o'clock the cotillion began. Emma did not know how to waltz. +Every one was waltzing, Mademoiselle d'Andervilliers herself and the +Marquis only the guests staying at the castle were still there about a +dozen persons. + +One of the waltzers, however, who was familiarly called Viscount, and +whose low cut waistcoat seemed moulded to his chest, came a second time +to ask Madame Bovary to dance, assuring her that he would guide her, and +that she would get through it very well. + +They began slowly, then went more rapidly. They turned; all around them +was turning--the lamps, the furniture, the wainscoting, the floor, like +a disc on a pivot. On passing near the doors the bottom of Emma's dress +caught against his trousers. Their legs commingled; he looked down at +her; she raised her eyes to his. A torpor seized her; she stopped. They +started again, and with a more rapid movement; the Viscount, dragging +her along, disappeared with her to the end of the gallery, where, +panting, she almost fell, and for a moment rested her head upon his +breast. And then, still turning, but more slowly, he guided her back to +her seat. She leant back against the wall and covered her eyes with her +hands. + +When she opened them again, in the middle of the drawing-room three +waltzers were kneeling before a lady sitting on a stool. She chose the +Viscount, and the violin struck up once more. + +Every one looked at them. They passed and re-passed, she with rigid +body, her chin bent down, and he always in the same pose, his figure +curved, his elbow rounded, his chin thrown forward. That woman knew how +to waltz! They kept up a long time, and tired out all the others. + +Then they talked a few moments longer, and after the good-nights, or +rather good-mornings, the guests of the château retired to bed. + +Charles dragged himself up by the balusters. His knees were going up +into his body. He had spent five consecutive hours standing bolt upright +at the card-tables, watching them play whist, without understanding +anything about it, and it was with a deep sigh of relief that he pulled +off his boots. + +Emma threw a shawl over her shoulders, opened the window, and leant out. + +The night was dark; some drops of rain were falling. She breathed in the +damp wind that refreshed her eyelids. The music of the ball was still +murmuring in her ears, and she tried to keep herself awake in order to +prolong the illusion of this luxurious life that she would soon have to +give up. + +Day began to break. She looked long at the windows of the château, +trying to guess which were the rooms of all those she had noticed the +evening before. She would fain have known their lives, have penetrated, +blended with them. But she was shivering with cold. She undressed, and +cowered down between the sheets against Charles, who was asleep. + +There were a great many people to luncheon. The repast lasted ten +minutes; no liqueurs were served, which astonished the doctor. Next, +Mademoiselle d'Andervilliers collected some pieces of roll in a small +basket to take them to the swans on the ornamental waters, and they went +to walk in the hot-houses, where strange plants, bristling with hairs, +rose in pyramids under hanging vases, whence, as from overfilled nests +of serpents, fell long green cords interlacing. The orangery, which was +at the other end, led by a covered way to the outhouses of the château. +The Marquis, to amuse the young woman, took her to see the stables. +Above the basket-shaped racks porcelain slabs bore the names of the +horses in black letters. Each animal in its stall whisked its tail when +any one went near and said "Tchk! tchk!" The boards of the harness-room +shone like the flooring of a drawing-room. The carriage harness was +piled up in the middle against two twisted columns, and the bits, the +whips, the spurs, the curbs, were ranged in a line all along the wall. + +Charles, meanwhile, went to ask a groom to put his horse to. The +dog-cart was brought to the foot of the steps, and all the parcels being +crammed in, the Bovarys paid their respects to the Marquis and +Marchioness and set out again for Tostes. + +Emma watched the turning wheels in silence. Charles, on the extreme edge +of the seat, held the reins with his two arms wide apart, and the little +horse ambled along in the shafts that were too big for him. The loose +reins hanging over his crupper were wet with foam, and the box fastened +on behind the chaise gave great regular bumps against it. + +They were on the heights of Thibourville when suddenly some horsemen +with cigars between their lips passed, laughing. Emma thought she +recognized the Viscount, turned back, and caught on the horizon only the +movement of the heads rising or falling with the unequal cadence of the +trot or gallop. + +A mile farther on they had to stop to mend with some string the traces +that had broken. + +But Charles, giving a last look to the harness, saw something on the +ground between the horse's legs, and he picked up a cigar-case with a +green silk border and blazoned in the center like the door of a +carriage. + +"There are even two cigars in it," said he; "they'll do for this evening +after dinner." + +"Why, do you smoke?" she asked. + +"Sometimes, when I get a chance." + +He put his find in his pocket and whipped up the nag. + +When they reached home the dinner was not ready. Madame lost her temper. +Nastasie answered rudely. + +"Leave the room!" said Emma. "You are forgetting yourself. I give you +warning." + +For dinner there was onion soup and a piece of veal with sorrel. +Charles, seated opposite Emma, rubbed his hands gleefully. + +"How good it is to be at home again!" + +Nastasie could be heard crying. He was rather fond of the poor girl. She +had formerly, during the wearisome time of his widowerhood, kept him +company many an evening. She had been his first patient, his oldest +acquaintance in the place. + +"Have you given her warning for good?" he asked at last. + +"Yes. Who is to prevent me?" she replied. + +Then they warmed themselves in the kitchen while their room was being +made ready. Charles began to smoke. He smoked with his lips protruded, +spitting every moment, recoiling at every puff. + +"You'll make yourself ill," she said scornfully. + +He put down his cigar and ran to swallow a glass of cold water at the +pump. Emma seizing hold of the cigar-case threw it quickly to the back +of the cupboard. + +The next day was a long one. She walked above her little garden, up and +down the same walks, stopping before the beds, before the espalier, +before the plaster curate, looking with amazement at all these things of +once-on-a-time that she knew so well. How far off the ball seemed +already! What was it that thus set so far asunder the morning of the day +before yesterday and the evening of to-day? Her journey to Vaubyessard +had made a hole in her life, like one of those great crevasses that a +storm will sometimes make in one night in mountains. Still she was +resigned. She devoutly put away in her closets her beautiful dress, down +to the satin shoes whose sole were yellowed with the slippery wax of the +dancing floor. Her heart was like these. In its friction against wealth +something had come over it that could not be effaced. + +The memory of this ball, then, became an occupation for Emma. Whenever +the Wednesday came round she said to herself as she awoke, "Ah! I was +there a week--a fortnight--three weeks ago." And little by little the +faces grew confused in her remembrance. She forgot the tune of the +quadrilles; she no longer saw the liveries and appointments so +distinctly; some details escaped her, but the regret remained with her. + + + + +IX. + +IDLE DREAMS. + + +Often when Charles was out she took from the cupboard, between the folds +of the linen where she had left it, the green silk cigar-case. She +looked at it, opened it, and even smelt the odor of the lining--a +mixture of verbena and tobacco. Whose was it? The Viscount's? Perhaps it +was a present from his mistress. It had been embroidered on some +rosewood frame, a pretty little thing, hidden from all eyes, that had +occupied many hours, and over which had fallen the soft curls of the +pensive worker. A breath of love had passed over the stitches on the +canvas; each prick of the needle had fixed there a hope or a memory, and +all those interwoven threads of silk were but the continuity of the same +silent passion. And then one morning the Viscount had taken it away with +him. Of what had they spoken when it lay upon the wide-manteled chimneys +between flower-vases and Pompadour clocks? She was at Tostes; he was at +Paris now, far away! What was this Paris like? What a vague name! She +repeated it in a low voice, for the mere pleasure of it; it rang in her +ears like a great cathedral bell; it shone before her eyes, even on the +labels of her pomade-pots. + +At night, when the carriers passed under her windows in their carts +singing the "Marjolaine," she awoke, and listened to the noise of the +iron-bound wheels, which, as they gained the country road, was soon +deadened by the soil. "They will be there to-morrow!" she said to +herself. + +And she followed them in thought up and down the hills, traversing +villages, gliding along the highroads by the light of the stars. At the +end of some indefinite distance there was always a confused spot, into +which her dream died. + +She bought a plan of Paris, and with the tip of her finger on the map +she walked about the capital. She went up the boulevards, stopping at +every turning, between the lines of the streets, in front of the white +squares that represented the houses. At last she would close the lids of +her weary eyes, and see in the darkness the gas jets flaring in the wind +and the steps of carriages lowered with much noise before the peristyles +of theatres. + +She took in "La Corbeille," a lady's journal, and the "Sylphe des +Salons." She devoured, without skipping a word, all the accounts of +first nights, races, and soirées, took an interest in the début of a +singer, in the opening of a new shop. She knew the latest fashions, the +addresses of the best tailors, the days of the Bois and the Opera. In +Eugène Sue she studied descriptions of furniture; she read Balzac and +George Sand, seeking in them imaginary satisfaction for her own desires. +Even at table she had her book by her, and turned over the pages while +Charles ate and talked to her. The memory of the Viscount always +returned as she read. Between him and the imaginary personages she made +comparisons. But the circle of which he was the centre gradually widened +round him, and the aureole that he bore, fading from his form, broadened +out beyond, lighting up her other dreams. + +Paris, more vague than the ocean, glimmered before Emma's eyes in an +atmosphere of vermilion. The many lives that stirred amid this tumult +were, however, divided into parts, classed as distinct pictures. Emma +perceived only two or three that hid from her all the rest, and in +themselves represented all humanity. The world of ambassadors moved over +polished floors in drawing-rooms lined with mirrors, round oval tables +covered with velvet and gold-fringed cloths. There were skirts with +trains; deep mysteries, anguish hidden beneath smiles. Then came the +society of the duchesses; all were pale; all got up at four o'clock; the +women, poor angels, wore English point on their petticoats; and the men, +unappreciated geniuses under a frivolous outward seeming, rode horses to +death at pleasure parties, spent the summer season at Baden, and towards +the forties married heiresses. In the private rooms of restaurants, +where one sups after midnight by the light of wax candles, laughed the +motley crowd of men of letters and actresses. They were prodigal as +kings, full of ideal, ambitious, fantastic frenzy. This was an existence +outside that of all others, between heaven and earth, in the midst of +storms, having something of the sublime. For the rest of the world it +was lost, with no particular place, and as if non-existent. The nearer +things were, moreover, the more her thoughts turned away from them. All +her immediate surroundings, the wearisome country, the middle-class +imbeciles, the mediocrity of existence, seemed to her exceptional, a +peculiar chance that had caught hold of her, while beyond stretched as +far as eye could see an immense land of joys and of passions. She +confused in her desire the sensualities of luxury with the delights of +the heart, elegance of manners with delicacy of sentiment. Did not love, +like Indian plants, need a special soil, a particular temperature? Sighs +by moonlight, long embraces, tears flowing over yielded hands, all the +fevers of the flesh and the languors of tenderness could not be +separated from the balconies of great castles full of indolence, from +boudoirs with silken curtains and thick carpets, well-filled +flower-stands, a bed on a raised dais, nor from the flashing of precious +stones and the shoulder-knots of liveries. + +The lad from the posting-house, who came to groom the mare every +morning, passed through the passage with his heavy wooden shoes; there +were holes in his blouse; his feet were bare in list slippers. And this +was the groom in knee-breeches with whom she had to be content! His work +done, he did not come back again all day, for Charles on his return put +up his horse himself, unsaddled him and put on the halter, while the +servant-girl brought a bundle of straw and threw it as best she could +into the manger. + +To replace Nastasie (who left Tostes shedding torrents of tears) Emma +took into her service a young girl of fourteen, an orphan with a sweet +face. She forbade her wearing cotton caps, taught her to address her in +the third person, to bring a glass of water on a plate, to knock before +coming into a room, to iron, starch, and to dress her,--tried to make a +lady's-maid of her. The new servant obeyed without a murmur, so as not +to be sent away; and, as madame usually left the key in the sideboard, +Félicité every evening took a small supply of sugar that she ate alone +in her bed after she had said her prayers. + +Sometimes in the afternoon she went to chat with the postilions. Madame +was in her room upstairs. She wore an open dressing-gown, that showed +between the shawl facings of her bodice a pleated chemisette with three +gold buttons. Her belt was a corded girdle with great tassels, and her +small garnet-colored slippers had a large knot of ribbon that fell over +her instep. She had bought herself a blotting-book, writing-case, +pen-holder, and envelopes, although she had no one to write to; she +dusted her what-not, looked at herself in the glass, picked up a book, +and then, dreaming between the lines, let it drop on her knees. She +longed to travel or to go back to her convent. She wished at the same +time to die and to live in Paris. + +Charles in snow and rain trotted across country. He ate omelettes on +farmhouse tables, poked his arm into damp beds, received the tepid spurt +of blood-lettings in his face, listened to death-rattles, examined +basins, turned over a good deal of dirty linen; but every evening he +found a blazing fire, his dinner ready, easy-chairs, and a well-dressed +woman, charming with an odor of freshness, though no one could say +whence the perfume came, or if it were not her skin that made odorous +her chemise. + +She charmed him by numerous attentions; now it was some new way of +arranging paper sconces for the candles, a flounce that she altered on +her gown, or an extraordinary name for some very simple dish that the +servant had spoilt, but that Charles swallowed with pleasure to the last +mouthful. At Rouen she saw some ladies who wore a bunch of charms on +their watch-chains; she bought some charms. She wanted for her +mantelpiece two large blue glass vases, and some time after an ivory +_nécessaire_ with a silver-gilt thimble. The less Charles understood +these refinements the more they seduced him. They added something to the +pleasure of the senses and to the comfort of his fireside. It was like a +golden dust sanding all along the narrow path of his life. + +He was well, looked well; his reputation was firmly established. The +country-folk loved him because he was not proud. He petted the children, +never went to the public-house, and, moreover, his morals inspired +confidence. He was specially successful with catarrhs and chest +complaints. Being much afraid of killing his patients, Charles, in fact, +prescribed only sedatives, from time to time an emetic, a footbath, or +leeches. It was not that he was afraid of surgery; he bled people +copiously like horses, and for the taking out of teeth he had the +"devil's own wrist." + +Finally, to keep up with the times, he took in "La Ruche Médicale," a +new journal whose prospectus had been sent him. He read it a little +after dinner, but in about five minutes, the warmth of the room added to +the effect of his dinner sent him to sleep; and he sat there, his chin +on his two hands and his hair spreading like a mane to the foot of the +lamp. Emma looked at him and shrugged her shoulders. Why, at least, was +not her husband one of those men of taciturn passions who work at their +books all night, and at last, when about sixty, the age when rheumatism +sets in, wear a string of orders on their ill-fitting black coats? She +could have wished this name of Bovary, which was hers, had been +illustrious, to see it displayed at the booksellers', repeated in the +newspapers, known to all France. But Charles had no ambition. An Yvetot +doctor whom he had lately met in consultation had somewhat humiliated +him at the very bedside of the patient, before the assembled relatives. +When, in the evening, Charles told her this anecdote, Emma inveighed +loudly against his colleague. Charles was much touched. He kissed her +forehead with a tear in his eyes. But she was angered with shame; she +felt a wild desire to strike him; she went to open the window in the +passage and breathed in the fresh air to calm herself. + +"What a man! what a man!" she said in a low voice, biting her lips. + +Besides, she was becoming more irritated with him. As he grew older his +manner grew heavier; at dessert he cut the corks of the empty bottles; +after eating he cleaned his teeth with his tongue; in taking soup he +made a gurgling noise with every spoonful; and, as he was getting +fatter, the puffed-out cheeks seemed to push the eyes, always small, up +to the temples. + +Sometimes Emma tucked the red borders of his under-vest into his +waistcoat, rearranged his cravat, and threw away the soiled gloves he +was going to put on; and this was not, as he fancied, for himself; it +was for herself, by a diffusion of egotism, of nervous irritation. +Sometimes, too, she told him of what she had read, such as a passage in +a novel, of a new play, or an anecdote of the "upper ten" that she had +seen in a feuilleton; for, after all, Charles was something, an +ever-open ear, an ever-ready approbation. She confided many a thing to +her greyhound. She would have done so to the logs in the fireplace or to +the pendulum of the clock. + +At bottom of her heart, however, she was waiting for something to +happen. Like shipwrecked sailors, she turned despairing eyes upon the +solitude of her life, seeking afar off some white sail in the mists of +the horizon. She did not know what this chance would be, what wind would +bring it her, toward what shore it would drive her, if it would be a +shallop or a three-decker, laden with anguish or full of bliss to the +port-holes. But each morning, as she awoke, she hoped it would come that +day; she listened to every sound, sprang up with a start, wondered that +it did not come; then at sunset, always more saddened, she longed for +the morrow. + +Spring came round. With the first warm weather, when the pear-trees +began to blossom, she suffered from dyspnoea. + +From the beginning of July she counted how many weeks there were to +October, thinking that perhaps the Marquis d'Andervilliers would give +another ball at Vaubyessard. But all September passed without letters or +visits. + +After the ennui of this disappointment her heart once more remained +empty, and then the same series of days recommenced. So now they would +thus follow one another, always the same, immovable, and bringing +nothing. Other lives, however flat, had at least the chance of some +event. One adventure sometimes brought with it infinite consequences, +and the scene changed. But nothing happened to her; God had willed it +so! The future was a dark corridor, with its door at the end shut fast. + +She gave up music. What was the good of playing? Who would hear her? +Since she could never, in a velvet gown with short sleeves, striking +with her light fingers the ivory keys of an Erard at a concert, feel +the murmur of ecstasy envelop her like a breeze, it was not worth while +boring herself with practising. Her drawing cardboard and her embroidery +she left in the cupboard. What was the good? what was the good? Sewing +irritated her. "I have read everything," she said to herself. And she +sat there making the tongs red-hot, or looked at the rain falling. + +How sad she was on Sundays when vespers sounded! She listened with dull +attention to each stroke of the cracked bell. A cat slowly walking over +some roof put up his back in the pale rays of the sun. The wind on the +highroad blew up clouds of dust. Afar off a dog sometimes howled; and +the bell, keeping time, continued its monotonous ringing that died away +over the fields. + +But the people came out from church. The women in waxed clogs, the +peasants in new blouses, the little bareheaded children skipping along +in front of them, all were going home. And till nightfall, five or six +men, always the same, stayed playing at corks in front of the large door +of the inn. + +The winter was severe. The windows every morning were covered with rime, +and the light shining through them, dim as through ground-glass, +sometimes did not change the whole day long. At four o'clock the lamp +had to be lighted. + +On fine days she went down into the garden. The dew had left on the +cabbages a silver lace with long transparent threads spreading from one +to the other. No birds were to be heard; everything seemed asleep, the +espalier covered with straw, and the vine, like a great sick serpent +under the coping of the wall, along which, on drawing near, one saw the +many-footed woodlice crawling. Under the spruce by the hedgerow, the +curé in the three-cornered hat reading his breviary had lost his right +foot, and the very plaster, scaling off with the frost, had left white +scabs on his face. + +Then she went up again, shut her door, put on coals, and fainting with +the heat of the hearth, felt her boredom weigh more heavily than ever. +She would have liked to go down and talk to the servant, but a sense of +shame restrained her. + +Every day at the same time the schoolmaster in a black skull-cap opened +the shutters of his house, and the rural policeman, wearing his sabre +over his blouse, passed by. Night and morning the post-horses, three by +three, crossed the street to water at the pond. From time to time the +bell of a public-house door rang, and when it was windy one could hear +the little brass basins that served as signs for the hairdresser's shop +creaking on their two rods. This shop had as decoration an old engraving +of a fashion-plate stuck against a window-pane and the wax bust of a +woman with yellow hair. He, too, the hairdresser, lamented his wasted +calling, his hopeless future, and dreaming of some shop in a big +town--at Rouen, for example, overlooking the harbor, near the +theater--he walked up and down all day from the mairie to the church, +sombre, and waiting for customers. When Madame Bovary looked up, she +always saw him there, like a sentinel on duty, with his skull-cap over +his ears and his waistcoat of lasting. + +Sometimes in the afternoon, outside the window of her room, the head of +a man appeared, a swarthy head with black whiskers, smiling slowly, with +a broad, gentle smile that showed his white teeth. A waltz immediately +began, and on the organ, in a little drawing-room, dancers the size of a +finger, women in pink turbans, Tyrolians in jackets, monkeys in +frock-coats, gentlemen in knee-breeches, turned and turned between the +sofas, the consoles, multiplied in the bits of looking-glass held +together at their corners by a piece of gold paper. The man turned his +handle, looking to the right and left, and up at the windows. Now and +again, while he shot out a long squirt of brown saliva against the +milestone, with his knee he raised his instrument, whose hard straps +tired his shoulder; and now, doleful and drawling, or gay and hurried, +the music escaped from the box, droning through a curtain of pink +taffeta under a brass claw in arabesque. They were airs played in other +places at the theaters, sung in drawing-rooms, danced to at night under +lighted lustres, echoes of the world that reached even to Emma. Endless +sarabands ran through her head, and, like an Indian dancing-girl on the +flowers of a carpet, her thoughts leaped with the notes, swung from +dream to dream, from sadness to sadness. When the man had caught some +coppers in his cap, he drew down an old cover of blue cloth, hitched his +organ on to his back, and went off with a heavy tread. She watched him +going. + +But it was above all the meal-times that were unbearable to her, in this +small room on the ground-floor, with its smoking stove, its creaking +door, the walls that sweated, the damp flags; all the bitterness of life +seemed served up on her plate, and with the smoke of the boiled beef +arose from her secret soul whiffs of sickliness. Charles was a slow +eater; she played with a few nuts, or, leaning on her elbow, amused +herself with drawing lines along the oil-cloth table-cover with the +point of her knife. + +She now let everything in her household take care of itself, and Madame +Bovary senior, when she came to spend part of Lent at Tostes, was much +surprised at the change. She who was formerly so careful, so dainty, now +passed whole days without dressing, wore gray cotton stockings, and +burnt tallow candles. She kept saying they must be economical since they +were not rich, adding that she was very contented, very happy, that +Tostes pleased her very much, with other speeches that closed the mouth +of her mother-in-law. Besides, Emma no longer seemed inclined to follow +her advice; once even, Madame Bovary having thought fit to maintain that +mistresses ought to keep an eye on the religion of their servants, she +had answered with so angry a look and so cold a smile that the good +woman did not mention it again. + +Emma was growing _difficile_, capricious. She ordered dishes for +herself, then she did not touch them; one day drank only pure milk, and +the next cups of tea by the dozen. Often she persisted in not going out, +then, stifling, threw open the windows and put on light frocks. After +she had well scolded her servant, she gave her presents or sent her out +to see the neighbors, just as she sometimes threw beggars all the silver +in her purse, although she was by no means tender-hearted or easily +accessible to the feelings of others, like most country-bred people, who +always retain in their souls something of the horny hardness of the +paternal hands. + +Toward the end of February old Rouault, in memory of his cure, himself +brought his son-in-law a superb turkey, and stayed three days at Tostes. +Charles being with his patients, Emma kept him company. He smoked in +the room, spat on the fire-dogs, talked farming, calves, cows, poultry, +and municipal council, so that when he left she closed the door on him +with a feeling of satisfaction that surprised even herself. Moreover, +she no longer concealed her contempt for anything or anybody, and at +times she set herself to express singular opinions, finding fault with +that which others approved, and approving things perverse and immoral, +all which made her husband open his eyes widely. + +Would this misery last forever? Would she never issue from it? Yet she +was as good as all the women who were living happily. She had seen +duchesses at Vaubyessard with clumsier waists and commoner ways, and she +execrated the injustice of God. She leant her head against the walls to +weep; she envied lives of stir; longed for masked balls, for violent +pleasures, with all the wildness, that she did not know, but that these +must surely yield. + +She grew pale and suffered from palpitations of the heart. Charles +prescribed valerian and camphor baths. Everything that was tried only +seemed to irritate her the more. + +On certain days she chattered with feverish rapidity, and this +over-excitement was suddenly followed by a state of torpor, in which she +remained without speaking, without moving. What then revived her was +pouring a bottle of eau-de-cologne over her arms. + +As she was constantly complaining about Tostes, Charles fancied that her +illness was no doubt due to some local cause, and fixing on this idea, +began to think seriously of setting up elsewhere. + +From that moment she drank vinegar, contracted a sharp little cough, and +completely lost her appetite. + +It cost Charles much to give up Tostes after living there four years and +when he was "beginning to get on there." Yet if it must be! He took her +to Rouen to see his old master. It was a nervous complaint: change of +air was needed. + +After looking about him on this side and on that, Charles learnt that in +the Neufchâtel arrondissement there was a considerable market-town +called Yonville l'Abbaye, whose doctor, a Polish refugee, had decamped a +week before. Then he wrote to the chemist of the place to ask the number +of the population, the distance from the nearest doctor, what his +predecessor had made a year, and so forth; and the answer being +satisfactory, he made up his mind to move towards the spring, if Emma's +health did not improve. + +One day when, in view of her departure, she was tidying a drawer, +something pricked her finger. It was a wire of her wedding-bouquet. The +orange blossoms were yellow with dust and the silver-bordered satin +ribbons frayed at the edges. She threw it into the fire. It flared up +more quickly than dry straw. Then it was like a red bush in the cinders, +slowly devoured. She watched it burn. The little pasteboard berries +burst, the wire twisted, the gold lace melted; and the shrivelled paper +corollas, fluttering like black butterflies at the back of the stove, at +last flew up the chimney. + +When they left Tostes in the month of March, Madame Bovary was +pregnant. + + + + +PART II. + +I. + +A NEW FIELD. + + +Yonville-l'Abbaye (so called from an old Capuchin abbey of which not +even the ruins remain) is a market-town twenty-four miles from Rouen, +between the Abbeville and Beauvais roads, at the foot of a valley +watered by the Rieule, a little river that runs into the Andelle after +turning three water-mills near its mouth, where there are a few trout +that the lads amuse themselves by fishing for on Sundays. + +We leave the highroad at La Boissière and keep straight on to the top of +the Leux hill, whence the valley is seen. The river that runs through it +makes of it, as it were, two regions with distinct physiognomies,--all +on the left is pasture land, all on the right arable. The meadow +stretches under a bulge of low hills to join at the back with the +pasture land of the Bray country, while on the eastern side, the plain, +gently rising, broadens out, showing as far as eye can follow its blond +cornfields. The water, flowing by the grass, divides with a white line +the color of the roads and of the plains, and the country is like a +great unfolded mantle with a green velvet cape bordered with a fringe of +silver. + +Before us, on the verge of the horizon, lie the oaks of the forest of +Argueil, with the steeps of the Saint-Jean hills scarred from top to +bottom with red irregular lines; they are rain-tracks, and these +brick-tones standing out in narrow streaks against the gray color of the +mountain are due to the quantity of iron springs that flow beyond in the +neighboring country. + +Here we are on the confines of Normandy, Picardy, and the Île-de-France, +a bastard land, whose language is without accent as its landscape is +without character. It is there that they make the worst Neufchâtel +cheeses of all the arrondissement; and, on the other hand, farming is +costly because so much manure is needed to enrich this friable soil full +of sand and flints. + +Up to 1835 there was no practicable road for getting to Yonville, but +about this time a cross-road was made which joins that of Abbeville to +that of Amiens, and is occasionally used by the Rouen wagoners on their +way to Flanders. Yonville-l'Abbaye has remained stationary in spite of +its "new outlet." Instead of improving the soil, they persist in keeping +up the pasture lands, however depreciated they may be in value, and the +lazy borough, growing away from the plain, has naturally spread +riverwards. It is seen from afar sprawling along the banks like a +cowherd taking a siesta by the waterside. + +At the foot of the hill beyond the bridge begins a roadway, planted with +young aspens, that leads in a straight line to the first houses in the +place. These, fenced in by hedges, are in the middle of courtyards full +of straggling buildings, wine-presses, cart-sheds, and distilleries +scattered under thick trees, with ladders, poles, or scythes hung on to +the branches. The thatched roofs, like fur caps drawn over eyes, reach +down over about a third of the low windows, whose coarse convex glasses +have knots in the middle like the bottoms of bottles. Against the +plaster wall, diagonally crossed by black joists, a meagre pear-tree +sometimes leans, and the ground floors have at their door a small +swing-gate, to keep out the chicks that come pilfering crumbs of bread +steeped in cider on the threshold. But the courtyards grow narrower, the +houses closer together, and the fences disappear; a bundle of ferns +swings under a window from the end of a broomstick; there is a +blacksmith's forge and then a wheelwright's, with two or three new carts +outside that partly block up the way. Then across an open space appears +a white house beyond a grass mound ornamented by a Cupid, his finger on +his lips; two brass vases are at each end of a flight of steps; +scutcheons[2] blaze upon the door. It is the notary's house, and the +finest in the place. + +[Footnote 2: The _panonceaux_ that have to be hung over the doors of +notaries.--TRANS.] + +The church is on the other side of the street, twenty paces farther +down, at the entrance of the square. The little cemetery that surrounds +it, closed in by a wall breast-high, is so full of graves that the old +stones, level with the ground, form a continuous pavement, on which the +grass of itself has marked out regular green squares. The church was +rebuilt during the last years of the reign of Charles X. The wooden roof +is beginning to rot from the top, and here and there has black hollows +in its blue color. Over the door, where the organ should be, is a loft +for the men, with a spiral staircase that reverberates under their wooden +shoes. + +The daylight coming through the plain glass windows falls obliquely upon +the pews ranged along the walls, which are adorned here and there with a +straw mat bearing beneath it the words in large letters, "Monsieur +So-and-so's pew." And at the spot where the building narrows, the +confessional forms a pendant to a statuette of the Virgin, clothed in a +satin robe, coifed with a tulle veil sprinkled with silver stars, and +with red cheeks, like an idol of the Sandwich Islands; and, finally, a +copy of the "Holy Family, presented by the Minister of the Interior," +overlooking the high altar, between four candlesticks, closes in the +perspective. The choir stalls, of deal wood, have been left unpainted. + +The market, that is to say, a tiled roof supported by some twenty posts, +occupies of itself about half the public square of Yonville. The town +hall, constructed "from the designs of a Paris architect," is a sort of +Greek temple that forms the corner next to the chemist's shop. On the +ground floor are three Ionic columns, and on the first floor a +semicircular gallery, while the dome that crowns it is occupied by a +Gallic cock, resting one foot upon the "Charte" and holding in the other +the scales of Justice. + +But that which most attracts the eye is, opposite the Lion d'Or inn, the +chemist's shop of Monsieur Homais. In the evening especially its argand +lamp is lighted, and the red and green jars that embellish his +shop-front throw far across the street their two streams of color; then +across them, as if in Bengal lights, is seen the shadow of the chemist +leaning over his desk. His house from top to bottom is placarded with +inscriptions written in large hand, round hand, printed hand: "Vichy, +Seltzer, Barège waters, blood purifiers, Raspail patent medicine, +Arabian racahout, Darcet lozenges, Regnault paste, trusses, baths, +hygienic chocolate," &c. And the signboard, which takes up all the +breadth of the shop, bears in gold letters, "Homais, Chemist." Then at +the back of the shop, behind the great scales fixed to the counter, the +word "Laboratory" appears on a scroll above a glass door, which about +half-way up once more repeats "Homais" in gold letters on a black +ground. + +Beyond this there is nothing to see at Yonville. The street (the only +one) a gunshot in length, and flanked by a few shops on either side, +stops short at the turn of the highroad. If it is left on the right hand +and the foot of the Saint-Jean hills followed, the cemetery is soon +reached. + +At the time of the cholera, in order to enlarge this, a piece of wall +was pulled down, and three acres of land by its side purchased; but all +the new portion is almost tenantless; the tombs, as heretofore, continue +to crowd together toward the gate. The keeper, who is at once +gravedigger and church beadle (thus making a double profit out of the +parish corpses), has taken advantage of the unused plot of ground to +plant potatoes there. From year to year, however, his small field grows +smaller, and when there is an epidemic, he does not know whether to +rejoice at the deaths or regret the burials. + +"You live on the dead, Lestiboudois!" the curé at last said to him one +day. This grim remark made him reflect; it checked him for some time; +but to this day he carries on the cultivation of his little tubers, and +even maintains stoutly that they grow naturally. + +Since the events about to be narrated, nothing in fact has changed at +Yonville. The tin tricolor flag still swings at the top of the +church-steeple; the two chintz streamers still flutter in the wind from +the linendraper's; the chemist's foetuses, like lumps of white amadou, +rot more and more in their turbid alcohol, and above the big door of the +inn the old golden lion, faded by rain, still shows passers-by its +poodle mane. + +On the evening when the Bovarys were to arrive at Yonville, Widow +Lefrançois, the landlady of this inn, was so very busy that she sweated +great drops as she moved her saucepans. To-morrow was market-day. The +meat had to be cut beforehand, the fowls drawn, the soup and coffee +made. Moreover, she had the boarders' meals to see to, and that of the +doctor, his wife, and their servant; the billiard-room was echoing with +bursts of laughter; three millers in the small parlor were calling for +brandy; the wood was blazing, the brazen pan was hissing, and on the +long kitchen table, amid the quarters of raw mutton, rose piles of +plates that rattled with the shaking of the block on which the spinach +was being chopped. From the poultry-yard was heard the screaming of the +fowls which the servant was chasing in order to wring their necks. + +A man slightly marked with small-pox, in green leather slippers, and +wearing a velvet cap with a gold tassel, was warming his back at the +chimney. His face expressed nothing but self-satisfaction, and he +appeared to take life as calmly as the goldfinch suspended over his head +in its wicker cage: this was the chemist. + +"Artémise!" shouted the landlady, "chop some wood, fill the water +bottles, bring some brandy, look sharp! If only I knew what dessert to +offer the guests you are expecting! Good heavens! Those furniture-movers +are beginning their racket in the billiard-room again; and their van has +been left before the front door! The 'Hirondelle' might run into it when +it draws up. Call Polyte and tell him to put it up. Only to think, +Monsieur Homais, that since morning they have had about fifteen games, +and drunk eight jars of cider! Why, they'll tear my cloth for me," she +went on, looking at them from a distance, her strainer in her hand. + +"That wouldn't be much of a loss," replied Monsieur Homais. "You would +buy another." + +"Another billiard-table!" exclaimed the widow. + +"Since that one is coming to pieces, Madame Lefrançois. I tell you again +you are doing yourself harm, much harm! And besides, players now want +narrow pockets and heavy cues. Hazards aren't played now; everything is +changed! One must keep pace with the times! Just look at Tellier!" + +The hostess reddened with vexation. The chemist went on: + +"You may say what you like; his table is better than yours; and if one +were to think, for example, of getting up a patriotic pool for Poland or +the sufferers from the Lyons floods"-- + +"It isn't beggars like him that'll frighten us," interrupted the +landlady, shrugging her fat shoulders. "Come, come, Monsieur Homais; as +long as the 'Lion d'Or' exists people will come to it. We've feathered +our nest; while one of these days you'll find the 'Café Français' closed +with a big placard on the shutters. Change my billiard-table!" she went +on, speaking to herself, "the table that comes in so handy for folding +the washing, and on which, in the hunting season, I have slept six +visitors! But that dawdler, Hivert, doesn't come!" + +"Are you waiting for him for your gentlemen's dinner?" + +"Wait for him! And what about Monsieur Binet? As the clock strikes six +you'll see him come in, for he hasn't his equal under the sun for +punctuality. He must always have his seat in the small parlor. He'd +rather die than dine anywhere else. And so squeamish as he is, and so +particular about the cider! Not like Monsieur Léon; he sometimes comes +at seven, or even half-past, and he doesn't so much as look at what he +eats. Such a nice young man! Never speaks a rough word!" + +"Well, you see, there's a great difference between an educated man and +an old carabineer who is now a tax-collector." + +Six o'clock struck. Binet came in. + +He wore a blue frock-coat falling in a straight line round his thin +body, and his leather cap, with its lappets knotted over the top of his +head with string, showed under the turned-up peak a bald forehead, +flattened by the constant wearing of a helmet. He wore a black cloth +waistcoat, a hair collar, gray trousers, and, all the year round, +well-blacked boots, that had two parallel swellings due to the sticking +out of his big toes. Not a hair stood out from the regular line of fair +whiskers, which encircling his jaws, framed, after the fashion of a +garden border, his long, wan face, whose eyes were small and the nose +hooked. Clever at all games of cards, a good hunter, and writing a fine +hand, he had at home a lathe, and amused himself by turning +napkin-rings, with which he filled up his house, with the jealousy of an +artist and the egotism of a bourgeois. + +He went to the small parlor, but the three millers had to be got out +first, and during the whole time necessary for laying the cloth, Binet +remained silent in his place near the stove. Then he shut the door and +took off his cap in his usual way. + +"It isn't with saying civil things that he'll wear out his tongue," said +the chemist, as soon as he was alone with the landlady. + +"He never talks more," she replied. "Last week two travelers in the +cloth line were here--such clever chaps, who told such jokes in the +evening, that I fairly cried with laughing; and he stood there like a +dab fish and never said a word." + +"Yes," observed the chemist; "no imagination, no sallies, nothing that +makes the society man." + +"Yet they say he has parts," objected the landlady. + +"Parts!" replied Monsieur Homais; "he parts! In his own line it is +possible," he added in a calmer tone. And he went on-- + +"Ah! that a merchant, who has large connections, a juris-consult, a +doctor, a chemist, should be thus absent-minded, that they should become +whimsical or even peevish, I can understand; such cases are cited in +history. But at least it is because they are thinking of something. +Myself, for example, how often has it happened to me to look on the +bureau for my pen to write a label, and to find, after all, that I had +put it behind my ear?" + +Madame Lefrançois just then went to the door to see if the "Hirondelle" +were not coming. She started. A man dressed in black suddenly came into +the kitchen. By the last gleam of the twilight one could see that his +face was rubicund and his form athletic. + +"What can I do for you, Monsieur le Curé?" asked the landlady, as she +reached down from the chimney one of the copper candlesticks placed with +their candles in a row. "Will you take something? A thimbleful of +_cassis_? A glass of wine?" + +The priest declined very politely. He had come for his umbrella, that he +had forgotten the other day at the Ernemont convent, and after asking +Madame Lefrançois to have it sent to him at the presbytery in the +evening, he left for the church, from which the Angelus was ringing. + +When the chemist no longer heard the noise of his boots along the +square, he thought the priest's behavior just now very unbecoming. This +refusal to take any refreshment seemed to him the most odious hypocrisy; +all priests tippled on the sly, and were trying to bring back the days +of the tithe. + +The landlady took up the defense of her curé. + +"Besides, he could double up four men like you over his knee. Last year +he helped our people to bring in the straw; he carried as many as six +trusses at once, he is so strong." + +"Bravo!" said the chemist. "Now just send your daughters to confess to +fellows with such a temperament! I, if I were the Government, I'd have +the priests bled once a month. Yes, Madame Lefrançois, every month--a +good phlebotomy, in the interests of the police and morals." + +"Be quiet, Monsieur Homais. You are an infidel; you've no religion." + +The chemist answered: "I have a religion, my religion, and I even have +more than all these others with their mummeries and their juggling. I +adore God, on the contrary. I believe in the Supreme Being, in a +Creator, whatever he may be. I care little who has placed us here below +to fulfil our duties as citizens and fathers of families; but I don't +need to go to church to kiss silver plates, and fatten, out of my +pocket, a lot of good-for-nothings who live better than we do. For one +can know him as well in a wood, in a field, or even contemplating the +eternal vault like the ancients. My God! mine is the God of Socrates, of +Franklin, of Voltaire, and Béranger! I am for the profession of faith of +the 'Savoyard Vicar,' and the immortal principles of '89! And I can't +admit of an old boy of a God who takes walks in his garden with a cane +in his hand, who lodges his friends in the belly of whales, dies +uttering a cry, and rises again at the end of three days; things absurd +in themselves, and completely opposed, moreover, to all physical laws, +which proves to us, by the way, that priests have always wallowed in +torpid ignorance, in which they would fain engulf the people with them." + +He ceased looking round for an audience, for in his bubbling over the +chemist had for a moment fancied himself in the midst of the town +council. But the landlady no longer heeded him; she was listening to a +distant rolling. One could distinguish the noise of a carriage mingled +with the clattering of loose horseshoes that beat against the ground, +and at last the "Hirondelle" stopped at the door. + +It was a yellow box on two large wheels, that, reaching to the tilt, +prevented travelers from seeing the road and soiled their shoulders. The +small panes of the narrow windows rattled in their sashes when the coach +was closed, and retained here and there patches of mud amid the old +layers of dust, that not even storms of rain had altogether washed away. +It was drawn by three horses, the first a leader, and when it came +down-hill its bottom jolted against the ground. + +Some of the inhabitants of Yonville came out into the square; they all +spoke at once, asking for news, for explanations, for hampers. Hivert +did not know whom to answer. It was he who did the errands of the place +in town. He went to the shops and brought back rolls of leather for the +shoemaker, old iron for the farrier, a barrel of herrings for his +mistress, caps from the milliner's, locks from the hairdresser's, and +all along the road on his return journey he distributed his parcels, +which he threw, standing upright on his seat and shouting at the top of +his voice, over the enclosures of the yards. + +An accident had delayed him. Madame Bovary's greyhound had run across +the field. They had whistled for him a quarter of an hour; Hivert had +even gone back a mile and a half expecting every moment to catch sight +of her; but it had been necessary to go on. Emma had wept, grown angry; +she had accused Charles of this misfortune. Monsieur Lheureux, a draper, +who happened to be in the coach with her had tried to console her by a +number of examples of lost dogs recognizing their masters at the end of +long years. One, he said, had been told of who had come back to Paris +from Constantinople. Another had gone one hundred and fifty miles in a +straight line, and swam four rivers; and his own father had possessed a +poodle, which, after twelve years of absence, had all of a sudden jumped +on his back in the street as he was going to dine in town. + + + + +II. + +NEW FRIENDS. + + +Emma got out first, then Félicité, Monsieur Lheureux, and a nurse, and +they had to wake up Charles in his corner, where he had slept soundly +since night set in. + +Homais introduced himself; he offered his homages to Madame and his +respects to Monsieur; said he was charmed to have been able to render +them some slight service, and added with a cordial air that he had +ventured to invite himself, his wife being away. + +When Madame Bovary was in the kitchen she went up to the chimney. With +the tips of her fingers she caught her dress at the knee, and having +thus pulled it up to her ankle, held out her foot in its black boot to +the fire above the revolving leg of mutton. The flame lit up the whole +of her, penetrating with a crude light the woof of her gown, the fine +pores of her fair skin, and even her eyelids, which she blinked now and +again. A great red glow passed over her with the blowing of the wind +through the half-open door. On the other side of the chimney a young man +with fair hair watched her silently. + +As he was a good deal bored at Yonville, where he was a clerk at the +notary's, Monsieur Guillaumin Monsieur Léon Dupuis (it was he who was +the second _habitué_ of the "Lion d'Or") frequently put back his +dinner-hour in the hope that some traveler might come to the inn, with +whom he could chat in the evening. On the days when his work was done +early, he had, for want of something else to do, to come punctually, and +endure from soup to cheese a _tête-à-tête_ with Binet. It was therefore +with delight that he accepted the landlady's suggestion that he should +dine in company with the newcomers, and they passed into the large +parlor where Madame Lefrançois, for the purpose of showing off, had had +the table laid for four. + +Homais asked to be allowed to keep on his skull-cap, for fear of coryza; +then turning to his neighbor-- + +"Madame is no doubt a little fatigued; one gets jolted so abominably in +our 'Hirondelle.'" + +"That is true," replied Emma; "but moving about always amuses me. I like +change of place." + +"It is so tedious," sighed the clerk, "to be always riveted to the same +places." + +"If you were like me," said Charles, "constantly obliged to be in the +saddle"-- + +"But," Léon went on, addressing himself to Madame Bovary, "nothing, it +seems to me, is more pleasant--when one can," he added. + +"Moreover," said the chemist, "the practice of medicine is not very hard +work in our part of the world, for the state of our roads allows us the +use of gigs, and generally, as the farmers are well off, they pay pretty +well. We have, medically speaking, besides the ordinary cases of +enteritis, bronchitis, bilious affections, etc., now and then a few +intermittent fevers at harvest-time; but on the whole, little of a +serious nature, nothing special to note, unless it be a great deal of +scrofula, due, no doubt, to the deplorable hygienic conditions of our +peasant dwellings. Ah! you will find many prejudices to combat, Monsieur +Bovary, much obstinacy of routine, with which all the efforts of your +science will daily come into collision; for people still have recourse +to novenas, to relics, to the priest, rather than come straight to the +doctor or the chemist. The climate, however, is not, truth to tell, bad, +and we even have a few nonagenarians in our parish. The thermometer (I +have made some observations) falls in winter to 4 degrees and in the +hottest season rises to 25 or 30 degrees Centigrade at the outside, +which gives us 24 degrees Réaumur as the maximum, or otherwise 54 +degrees Fahrenheit (English scale), not more. And, as a matter of fact, +we are sheltered from the north winds by the forest of Argueil on the +one side, from the west winds by the St. Jean range on the other; and +this heat, moreover, which, on account of the aqueous vapors given off +by the river and the considerable number of cattle in the fields, which, +as you know, exhale much ammonia, that is to say, nitrogen, hydrogen, +and oxygen (no, nitrogen and hydrogen alone), and which sucking up into +itself the humus from the ground, mixing together all those different +emanations, unites them into a stack, so to say, and combining with the +electricity diffused through the atmosphere, when there is any, might in +the long run, as in tropical countries, engender insalubrious +miasmata,--this heat, I say, finds itself perfectly tempered on the side +whence it comes, or rather whence it should come--that is to say, the +southern side--by the south-eastern winds, which, having cooled +themselves passing over the Seine, reach us sometimes all at once, like +breezes from Russia." + +"At any rate, you have some walks in the neighborhood?" continued Madame +Bovary, speaking to the young man. + +"Oh, very few," he answered. "There is a place they call La Pâture, on +the top of the hill, on the edge of the forest. Sometimes, on Sundays, I +go and stay there with a book, watching the sunset." + +"I think there is nothing so admirable as sunsets," she resumed; "but +especially by the side of the sea." + +"Oh, I adore the sea!" said Monsieur Léon. + +"And then, does it not seem to you," continued Madame Bovary, "that the +mind travels more freely on this limitless expanse, the contemplation of +which elevates the soul, gives ideas of the infinite, the ideal?" + +"It is the same with mountainous landscapes," continued Léon. "A cousin +of mine who traveled in Switzerland last year told me that one could not +picture to oneself the poetry of the lakes, the charm of the waterfalls, +the gigantic effect of the glaciers. One sees pines of incredible size +across torrents, cottages suspended over precipices, and, a thousand +feet below one, whole valleys when the clouds open. Such spectacles must +stir to enthusiasm, incline to prayer, to ecstasy; and I no longer +marvel at that celebrated musician who, the better to inspire his +imagination, was in the habit of playing the piano before some imposing +site." + +"You play?" she asked. + +"No, but I am very fond of music," he replied. + +"Ah! don't you listen to him, Madame Bovary," interrupted Homais, +bending over his plate. "That's sheer modesty. Why, my dear fellow, the +other day in your room you were singing 'L'Ange Gardien' ravishingly. I +heard you from the laboratory. You gave it like an actor." + +Léon, in fact, lodged at the chemist's, where he had a small room on the +second floor, overlooking the Place. He blushed at the compliment of his +landlord, who had already turned to the doctor, and was enumerating to +him, one after the other, all the principal inhabitants of Yonville. He +was telling anecdotes, giving information; the fortune of the notary was +not known exactly, and "there was the Tuvache household," who made a +good deal of show. + +Emma continued, "And what music do you prefer?" + +"Oh, German music; that which makes you dream." + +"Have you been to the opera?" + +"Not yet; but I shall go next year, when I am living at Paris to finish +reading for the bar." + +"As I had the honor of putting it to your husband," said the chemist, +"with regard to this poor Yanoda who has run away, you will find +yourself, thanks to his extravagance, in the possession of one of the +most comfortable houses of Yonville. Its greatest convenience for a +doctor is a door giving on the Walk, where one can go in and out unseen. +Moreover, it contains everything that is agreeable in a household--a +laundry, kitchen with offices, sitting-room, fruit-room, etc. He was a +gay dog, who didn't care what he spent. At the end of the garden, by the +side of the water, he had an arbor built just for the purpose of +drinking beer in summer; and if madame is fond of gardening she will be +able"-- + +"My wife doesn't care about it," said Charles; "although she has been +advised to take exercise, she prefers always sitting in her room +reading." + +"Like me," replied Léon. "And indeed, what is better than to sit by +one's fireside in the evening with a book, while the wind beats against +the window and the lamp is burning?" + +"What, indeed?" she said, fixing her large black eyes wide open upon +him. + +"One thinks of nothing," he continued; "the hours slip by. Motionless we +traverse countries we fancy we see, and your thought, blending with the +fiction, playing with the details, follows the outline of the +adventures. It mingles with the characters, and it seems as if it were +yourself palpitating beneath their costumes." + +"That is true! that is true!" she said. + +"Has it ever happened to you," Léon went on, "to come across some vague +idea of one's own in a book, some dim image that comes back to you from +afar, and as the completest expression of your own slightest sentiment?" + +"I have experienced it," she replied. + +"That is the reason why," he said, "I especially love the poets. I think +verse more tender than prose, and that it moves far more easily to +tears." + +"Still in the long run it is tiring," continued Emma. "Now I, on the +contrary, adore stories that rush breathlessly along, that frighten one. +I detest commonplace heroes and moderate sentiments, such as there are +in nature." + +"In fact," observed the clerk, "these works, not touching the heart, it +seems to me, the true end of art. It is so sweet, amid all the +disenchantments of life, to be able to dwell in thought upon noble +characters, pure affections, and pictures of happiness. For myself, +living here far from the world, this is my one distraction; but Yonville +affords so few resources." + +"Like Tostes, no doubt," replied Emma; "and so I always subscribed to a +lending library." + +"If madame will do me the honor of making use of it," said the chemist, +who had just caught the last words, "I have at her disposal a library +composed of the best authors, Voltaire, Rousseau, Delille, Walter Scott, +the 'Echo des Feuilletons;' and in addition I receive various +periodicals, among them the 'Fanal de Rouen' daily, having the advantage +to be its correspondent for the districts of Buchy, Forges, Neufchâtel, +Yonville and vicinity." + +For two hours and a half they had been at table; for the servant +Artémise, carelessly dragging her old list slippers over the flags, +brought one plate after the other, forgot everything, and constantly +left the door of the billiard-room half open, so that it beat against +the wall with its hooks. + +Unconsciously, Léon, while talking, had placed his foot on one of the +bars of the chair on which Madame Bovary was sitting. She wore a small +blue silk necktie, that kept up like a ruff a gauffered cambric collar, +and with the movements of her head the lower part of her face gently +sunk into the linen or came out from it. Thus, side by side, while +Charles and the chemist chatted, they entered into one of those vague +conversations where the hazard of all that is said brings you back to +the fixed center of a common sympathy. The Paris theaters, titles of +novels, new quadrilles, and the world they did not know; Tostes, where +she had lived, and Yonville, where they were; they examined all, talked +of everything till to the end of dinner. + +When coffee was served Félicité went away to get ready the room in the +new house, and the guests soon raised the siege. Madame Lefrançois was +asleep near the cinders, while the stable-boy, lantern in hand, was +waiting to show Monsieur and Madame Bovary the way home. Bits of straw +stuck in his red hair, and he limped with his left leg. When he had +taken in his other hand the curé's umbrella, they started. + +The town was asleep; the pillars of the market threw great shadows; the +earth was all gray as on a summer's night. But as the doctor's house was +only some fifty paces from the inn, they had to say good-night almost +immediately, and the company dispersed. + +As soon as she entered the passage, Emma felt the cold of the plaster +fall about her shoulders like damp linen. The walls were new and the +wooden stairs creaked. In their bedroom, on the first floor, a whitish +light passed through the curtainless windows. She could catch glimpses +of tree-tops, and beyond, the fields, half-drowned in the fog that lay +reeking in the moonlight along the course of the river. In the middle of +the room, pell-mell, were scattered drawers, bottles, curtain-rods, gilt +poles, with mattresses on the chairs and basins on the floor,--the two +men who had brought the furniture had left everything about carelessly. + +This was the fourth time that she had slept in a strange place. The +first was the day of her going to the convent; the second, of her +arrival at Tostes; the third, at Vaubyessard; and this was the fourth. +And each one had marked, as it were, the inauguration of a new phase in +her life. She did not believe that things could present themselves in +the same way in different places, and since the portion of her life +lived had been bad, no doubt that which remained to be lived would be +better. + + + + +III. + +ADDED CARES. + + +The next day, as she was getting up, she saw the clerk on the Place. She +had on a dressing-gown. He looked up and bowed. She nodded quickly and +reclosed the window. + +Léon waited all day for six o'clock in the evening to come, but on going +to the inn, he found no one but Monsieur Binet, already at table. The +dinner of the evening before had been a considerable event for him; he +had never till then talked for two hours consecutively to a "lady." How +then had he been able to explain, and in such language, the number of +things that he could not have said so well before? He was usually shy, +and maintained that reserve which partakes at once of modesty and +dissimulation. At Yonville he was considered "well-bred." He listened to +the arguments of the older people, and did not seem hot about +politics--a remarkable thing for a young man. Then he had some +accomplishments; he painted in water-colors, could read the key of _G_, +and readily talked literature after dinner when he did not play cards. +Monsieur Homais respected him for his education; Madame Homais liked him +for his good-nature, for he often took the little Homaises into the +garden--little brats who were always dirty, very much spoiled, and +somewhat lymphatic, like their mother. Besides the servant to look after +them, they had Justin, the chemist's apprentice, a second cousin of +Monsieur Homais, who had been taken into the house from charity, and who +was useful at the same time as a servant. + +The chemist proved the best of neighbors. He gave Madame Bovary +information as to the tradespeople, sent expressly for his own cider +merchant, tasted the drink himself, and saw that the casks were properly +placed in the cellar; he explained how to set about getting in a supply +of butter cheap, and made an arrangement with Lestiboudois, the +sacristan, who, besides his sacerdotal and funereal functions, looked +after the principal gardens at Yonville by the hour or the year, +according to the taste of the customers. + +The need of looking after others was not the only thing that urged the +chemist to such obsequious cordiality; there was a plan underneath it +all. + +He had infringed the law of the 19th Ventôse, year xi, article 1, which +forbade all persons not having a diploma to practice medicine; so that, +after certain anonymous denunciations, Homais had been summoned to Rouen +to see the procureur of the king in his own private room; the magistrate +receiving him standing up, ermine on shoulder and cap on head. It was in +the morning, before the court opened. In the corridors one heard the +heavy boots of the gendarmes walking past, and like a far-off noise +great locks that were shut. The chemist's ears tingled as if he were +about to have an apoplectic stroke: he saw the depths of dungeons, his +family in tears, his shop sold, all the jars dispersed; and he was +obliged to enter a café and take a glass of rum and seltzer to recover +his spirits. + +Little by little the memory of this reprimand grew fainter, and he +continued, as heretofore, to give anodyne consultations in his +back-parlor. But the mayor resented it, his colleagues were jealous, +everything was to be feared; gaining over Monsieur Bovary by his +attentions was to earn his gratitude, and prevent his speaking out +later, should he notice anything. So every morning Homais brought him +"the paper," and often in the afternoon left his shop for a few moments +to have a chat with the Doctor. + +Charles was dull: patients did not come. He remained seated for hours +without speaking, went into his consulting-room to sleep, or watched his +wife sewing. Then for diversion he employed himself at home as a +workman; he even tried to do up the attic with some paint which had been +left behind by the painters. But money matters worried him. He had spent +so much for repairs at Tostes, for madame's toilette, and for the +moving, that the whole dowry, over three thousand crowns, had slipped +away in two years. Then how many things had been spoilt or lost during +their carriage from Tostes to Yonville, without counting the plaster +curé, who, falling out of the coach at an over-severe jolt, had been +dashed into a thousand fragments on the pavement of Quincampoix! + +A pleasanter trouble came to distract him, namely, the pregnancy of his +wife. As the time of her confinement approached he cherished her the +more. It was another bond of the flesh establishing itself, and, as it +were, a continued sentiment of a more complex union. When from afar he +saw her languid walk, and her figure without stays turning softly on her +hips; when opposite one another he looked at her at his ease, while she +took tired poses in her armchair, then his happiness knew no bounds; he +got up, embraced her, passed his hands over her face, called her little +mamma, wanted to make her dance, and, half-laughing, half-crying, +uttered all kinds of caressing pleasantries that came into his head. The +idea of having begotten a child delighted him. Now he wanted nothing. He +knew human life from end to end, and he sat down to it with serenity. + +Emma at first felt a great astonishment; then was anxious to be +delivered that she might know what it was to be a mother. But not being +able to spend as much as she would have liked, to have a +swing-bassinette with rose silk curtains, and embroidered caps, in a fit +of bitterness she gave up looking after the trousseau, and ordered the +whole of it from a village needlewoman, without choosing or discussing +anything. Thus she did not amuse herself with those preparations that +stimulate the tenderness of mothers, and so her affection was from the +very outset, perhaps, to some extent attenuated. + +As Charles, however, spoke of the boy at every meal, she soon began to +think of him more consecutively. + +She hoped for a son; he would be strong and dark; she would call him +George; and this idea of having a male child was like an expected +revenge for all her impotence in the past. A man, at least, is free; he +may travel over passions and over countries, overcome obstacles, taste +of the most far-away pleasures. But a woman is always hampered. At once +inert and flexible, she has against her the weakness of the flesh and +legal dependence. Her will, like the veil of her bonnet, held by a +string, flutters in every wind; there is always some desire that draws +her, some conventionality that restrains. + +She was confined on a Sunday at about six o'clock, as the sun was +rising. + +"It is a girl!" said Charles. + +She turned her head away and fainted. + +Madame Homais, as well as Madame Lefrançois of the Lion d'Or, almost +immediately came running in to embrace her. The chemist, as a man of +discretion, offered only a few provisional felicitations through the +half-open door. He wished to see the child, and thought it well made. + +While she was getting well she occupied herself much in seeking a name +for her daughter. First she went over all those that have Italian +endings, such as Clara, Louisa, Amanda, Atala; she liked Galsuinde very +well, and Yseult or Léocadie still better. Charles wanted the child to +be called after her mother; Emma opposed this. They ran over the +calendar from end to end, and then consulted outsiders. + +"Monsieur Léon," said the chemist, "with whom I was talking about it the +other day, wonders you do not choose Madeleine. It is very much in +fashion just now." + +But Madame Bovary, senior, cried out loudly against this name of a +sinner. As to Monsieur Homais, he had a preference for all those that +recalled some great man, an illustrious fact, or a generous idea, and it +was on this system that he baptized his four children. Thus Napoléon +represented glory and Franklin liberty; Irma was perhaps a concession to +romanticism, but Athalie was a homage to the greatest masterpiece of the +French stage. For his philosophical convictions did not interfere with +his artistic tastes; in him the thinker did not stifle the man of +sentiment; he could make distinctions, make allowances for imagination +and fanaticism. In this tragedy, for example, he found fault with the +ideas, but admired the style; he detested the conception, but applauded +all the details, and loathed the characters while he grew enthusiastic +over their dialogue. When he read the fine passages he was transported, +but when he thought that mummers would get something out of them for +their show, he was disconsolate; and in this confusion of sentiments in +which he was involved he would have liked at once to crown Racine with +both his hands and argue with him for a good quarter of an hour. + +At last Emma remembered that at the château of Vaubyessard she had heard +the Marchioness call a young lady Berthe; from that moment this name was +chosen; and as old Rouault could not come, Monsieur Homais was requested +to stand godfather. His gifts were all products from his establishment, +to wit: six boxes of jujubes, a whole jar of racahout, three cakes of +marsh-mallow paste, and six sticks of sugar-candy, into the bargain, +that he had come across in a cupboard. On the evening of the ceremony +there was a grand dinner; the curé was present; there was much +excitement. Monsieur Homais toward liqueur-time began singing "Le Dieu +des bonnes gens." Monsieur Léon sang a barcarolle, and Madame Bovary, +senior, who was godmother, a romance of the time of the Empire; finally, +M. Bovary, senior, insisted on having the child brought down, and began +baptizing it with a glass of champagne that he poured over its head. +This mockery of the first of the sacraments made the Abbé Bournisien +angry; old Bovary replied by a quotation from "La Guerre des Dieux;" the +curé wished to leave; the ladies implored, Homais interfered; and they +succeeded in making the priest sit down again, and he quietly went on +with the half-finished coffee in his saucer. + +Monsieur Bovary, senior, stayed at Yonville a month, dazzling the +natives by a superb policeman's cap with silver tassels that he wore in +the morning when he smoked his pipe in the square. Being also in the +habit of drinking a good deal of brandy, he often sent the servant to +the Lion d'Or to buy him a bottle, which was put down to his son's +account, and to perfume his handkerchiefs he used up his +daughter-in-law's whole supply of eau-de-cologne. + +The latter did not at all dislike his company. He had knocked about the +world, he talked about Berlin, Vienna, and Strasbourg, of his soldier +times, of the mistresses he had had, the grand luncheons of which he had +partaken; then he was amiable, and sometimes even, either on the stairs +or in the garden, would seize hold of her waist, crying, "Charles, look +out for yourself." + +Then Madame Bovary, senior, became alarmed for her son's happiness, and +fearing that her husband might in the long run have an immoral influence +upon the ideas of the young woman, took care to hurry their departure. +Perhaps she had more serious reasons for uneasiness. Monsieur Bovary was +not the man to respect anything. + +One day Emma was suddenly seized with the desire to see her little girl, +who had been put to nurse with the carpenter's wife, and without looking +at the almanac to see whether the six weeks of the Virgin were yet +passed, she set out for the Rollets' house, situated at the extreme end +of the village, between the highroad and the fields. + +It was mid-day, the shutters of the houses were closed, and the slate +roofs that glittered beneath the fierce light of the blue sky seemed to +strike sparks from the crest of their gables. A heavy wind was blowing; +Emma felt weak as she walked; the stones of the pavement hurt her; she +was doubtful whether she would not go home again, or go in somewhere to +rest. + +At this moment Monsieur Léon came out from a neighboring door with a +bundle of papers under his arm. He came to greet her, and stood in the +shade in front of Lheureux's shop under the projecting gray awning. + +Madame Bovary said she was going to see her baby, but that she was +beginning to grow tired. + +"If--" said Léon, not daring to go on. + +"Have you any business to attend to?" she asked. + +And on the clerk's answer, she begged him to accompany her. That same +evening this was known in Yonville, and Madame Tuvache, the mayor's +wife, declared in the presence of her servant that "Madame Bovary was +compromising herself." + +To get to the nurse's it was necessary to turn to the left on leaving +the street, as if making for the cemetery, and to follow between little +houses and yards a small path bordered with privet hedges. They were in +bloom, and so were the speedwells, eglantines, thistles, and the +sweetbriar that sprang up from the thickets. Through openings in the +hedges one could see into the huts, some pig on a dung-heap, or tethered +cows rubbing their horns against the trunk of trees. The two, side by +side, walked slowly, she leaning upon him, and he restraining his pace, +which he regulated by hers; in front of them a swarm of midges +fluttered, buzzing in the warm air. + +They recognized the house by an old walnut-tree which shaded it. Low, +and covered with brown tiles, outside it hung, beneath the dormer-window +of the garret, a string of onions. Faggots upright against a thorn fence +surrounded a bed of lettuces, a few square feet of lavender, and sweet +peas strung on sticks. Dirty water was running here and there on the +grass, and several indefinite rags, knitted stockings, a red calico +jacket, and a large sheet of coarse linen, were spread over the hedge. +At the noise of the gate the nurse appeared with a baby she was suckling +on one arm. With her other hand she was pulling along a poor puny little +fellow, his face covered with scrofula, the son of a Rouen hosier, whom +his parents, too taken up with their business, left in the country. + +"Go in," she said; "your little one is there asleep." + +The room on the ground floor, the only one in the dwelling, had at its +farther end, against the wall, a large bed without curtains, while a +kneading-trough took up the side by the window, one pane of which was +mended with a piece of blue paper. In the corner behind the door, +shining hobnailed shoes stood in a row under the slab of the washstand, +near a bottle of oil with a feather stuck in its mouth; a _Matthieu +Laensberg_ lay on the dusty mantelpiece amid gun-flints, candle-ends, +and bits of amadou. Finally, the last luxury in the apartment was a +"Fame" blowing her trumpets, a picture cut out, no doubt, from some +perfumer's prospectus and nailed to the wall with six wooden shoe-pegs. + +Emma's child was asleep in a wicker-cradle. She took it up in the +wrapping that enveloped it and began singing softly as she rocked +herself to and fro. + +Léon walked up and down the room; it seemed strange to him to see this +beautiful woman in her nankeen dress in the midst of all this poverty. +Madame Bovary reddened, he turned away, thinking perhaps there had been +an impertinent look in his eyes. Then she put back the baby girl, who +had just vomited over her frock. The nurse at once came to dry her, +protesting that it wouldn't show. + +"She gives me other doses," she said; "I am always a-washing of her. If +you would have the goodness to order Camus, the grocer, to let me have a +little soap; it would really be more convenient for you, as I needn't +trouble you then." + +"Very well! very well!" said Emma. "Good morning, Madame Rollet," and +she went out, wiping her shoes at the door. + +The good woman accompanied her to the end of the garden, talking all the +time of the trouble she had getting up of nights. + +"I'm that worn out sometimes as I drop asleep on my chair. I'm sure you +might at least give me just a pound of ground coffee; that'd last me a +month, and I'd take it of a morning with some milk." + +After submitting to her thanks, Madame Bovary left. She had gone a +little way down the path when, at the sound of wooden shoes, she turned +round. It was the nurse. + +"What is it?" + +Then the peasant woman, taking her aside behind an elm tree, began +talking to her of her husband, who with his trade and six francs a year +that the captain-- + +"Oh, be quick!" said Emma. + +"Well," the nurse went on, heaving sighs between each word, "I'm afraid +he'll be put out seeing me have coffee alone; you know men--" + +"But you are to have some," Emma repeated; "I will give you some. You +bother me!" + +"Oh, dear! my poor, dear lady! you see, in consequence of his wounds he +has terrible cramps in the chest. He even says that cider weakens him." + +"Do make haste, Mère Rollet!" + +"Well," the latter continued, making a curtsey, "if it weren't asking +too much," and she curtsied once more, "if you would"--and her eyes +begged--"a jar of brandy," she said at last, "and I'd rub your little +one's feet with it; they're as tender as one's tongue." + +Once rid of the nurse, Emma again took Monsieur Léon's arm. She walked +fast for some time, then more slowly, and looking straight in front of +her, her eyes rested on the shoulder of the young man, whose frock-coat +had a black-velvet collar. His brown hair fell over it, straight and +carefully arranged. She noticed his nails, which were longer than one +wore them at Yonville. It was one of the clerk's chief occupations to +trim them, and for this purpose he kept a special knife in his +writing-desk. + +They returned to Yonville by the waterside. In the warm season the +bank, wider than at other times, showed to its foot the garden walls, +whence a few steps led to the river. It flowed noiselessly, swift, and +cold to the eye; long, thin grasses huddled together in it as the +current drove them, and spread themselves upon the limpid water like +streaming hair; sometimes at the top of the reeds or on the leaf of a +water-lily an insect with thin legs crawled or rested. The sun pierced +with a ray the small blue bubbles of the waves that, breaking, followed +each other; branchless old willows mirrored their gray backs in the +water; beyond, all around, the meadows seemed empty. It was the +dinner-hour at the farms, and the young woman and her companion heard +nothing as they walked but the fall of their steps on the earth of the +path, the words they spoke, and the sound of Emma's skirts rustling +around her. + +The walls of the gardens, with pieces of bottle on their coping, were as +hot as the glass windows of a conservatory. Wallflowers had sprung up +between the bricks, and with the tip of her open sunshade Madame Bovary, +as she passed, made some of their faded flowers crumble into a yellow +dust, or a spray of overhanging honeysuckle and clematis caught in its +fringe and dangled for a moment over the silk. + +They were talking of a troupe of Spanish dancers who were expected +shortly at the Rouen theatre. + +"Are you going?" she asked. + +"If I can," he answered. + +Had they nothing else to say to one another? Yet their eyes were full of +more serious speech, and while they forced themselves to find trivial +phrases they felt the same languor stealing over them both. It was the +whisper of the soul, deep, continuous, dominating that of their voices. +Surprised with wonder at this strange sweetness, they did not think of +speaking of the sensation or of seeking its cause. Coming joys, like +tropical shores, throw over the immensity before them their inborn +softness, an odorous wind, and we are lulled by this intoxication +without a thought of the horizon that we do not even know. + +In one place the ground had been trodden down by the cattle; they had to +step on large green stones put here and there in the mud. She often +stopped a moment to look where to place her foot, and tottering on the +stone that shook, her arms outspread, her form bent forward with a look +of indecision, she would laugh, afraid of falling into the puddles of +water. + +When they arrived in front of her garden, Madame Bovary opened the +little gate, ran up the steps and disappeared. + +Léon returned to his office. His chief was away; he just glanced at the +briefs, then cut himself a pen, and at last took up his hat and went +out. + +He went to La Pâture at the top of the Argueil hills at the beginning of +the forest; he threw himself upon the ground under the pines and gazed +at the sky through his fingers. + +"How bored I am!" he said to himself, "how bored I am!" + +He thought he was to be pitied for living in this village, with Homais +for a friend and Monsieur Guillaumin for master. The latter, entirely +absorbed by his business, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles and red +whiskers over a white cravat, understood nothing of mental refinements, +although he affected a stiff English manner, which in the beginning had +impressed the clerk. + +As to the chemist's spouse, she was the best wife in Normandy, gentle as +a sheep, loving her children, her father, her mother, her cousins, +weeping for others' woes, letting everything go in her household, and +detesting corsets; but so slow of movement, such a bore to listen to, so +common in appearance, and of such restricted conversation, that although +she was thirty, he only twenty, although they slept in rooms next each +other and he spoke to her daily, he never thought that she might be a +woman for another, or that she possessed anything else of her sex than +the gown. + +And what else was there? Binet, a few shopkeepers, two or three +publicans, the curé, and, finally, Monsieur Tuvache, the mayor, with his +two sons, rich, crabbed, obtuse persons, who farmed their own lands and +had feasts among themselves, bigoted to boot, and quite unbearable +companions. + +But from the general background of all these human faces Emma's stood +out isolated and yet farthest off; for between her and him he seemed to +see a vague abyss. + +In the beginning he had called on her several times along with the +druggist. Charles had not appeared particularly anxious to see him +again, and Léon did not know what to do between his fear of being +indiscreet and the desire for an intimacy that seemed almost +impossible. + + + + +IV. + +SILENT HOMAGE. + + +When the first cold days set in Emma left her bedroom for the +sitting-room, a long apartment with a low ceiling, in which there was on +the mantelpiece a large bunch of coral spread out against the +looking-glass. Seated in her armchair near the window, she could see +the villagers pass along the pavement. + +Twice a day Léon went from his office to the Lion d'Or. Emma could hear +him coming from afar; she leant forward listening, and the young man +glided past the curtain, always dressed in the same way, and without +turning his head. But in the twilight, when, her chin resting on her +left hand, she let the embroidery she had begun fall on her knees, she +often shuddered at the apparition of this shadow suddenly gliding past. +She would get up and order the table to be laid. + +Monsieur Homais called at dinner-time. Skull-cap in hand, he came in on +tiptoe, in order to disturb no one, always repeating the same phrase, +"Good evening, everybody." Then, when he had taken his seat at table +between the pair, he asked the doctor about his patients, and the latter +consulted him as to the probability of their payment. Next they talked +of what was in the paper. Homais by this hour knew it almost by heart, +and he repeated it from end to end, with the reflections of the +penny-a-liners, and all the stories of individual catastrophes that had +occurred in France or abroad. But the subject becoming exhausted, he was +not slow in throwing out some remarks on the dishes before him. +Sometimes even, half-rising, he delicately pointed out to Madame the +tenderest morsel, or turning to the servant, gave her some advice on the +manipulation of stews and the hygiene of seasoning. He talked aroma, +osmazome, juices, and gelatine in a bewildering manner. Moreover, +Homais, with his head fuller of recipes than his shop of jars, excelled +in making all kinds of preserves, vinegars, and sweet liqueurs; he knew +also all the last inventions in economic stoves, together with the art +of preserving cheeses and of curing sick wines. + +At eight o'clock Justin came to fetch him to shut up the shop. Then +Monsieur Homais gave him a sly look, especially if Félicité was there, +for he had noticed that his apprentice was fond of the doctor's house. + +"The young dog," he said, "is beginning to have ideas, and the devil +take me if I don't believe he's in love with your servant!" + +But a more serious fault with which he reproached Justin was his +constantly listening to conversation. On Sunday, for example, one could +not get him out of the drawing-room, whither Madame Homais had called +him to fetch the children, who were falling asleep in the armchairs, +and dragging down with their backs calico chair-covers that were too +large. + +Not many people came to these soirées at the chemist's, his +scandal-mongering and political opinions having successively alienated +various respectable persons from him. The clerk never failed to be +there. As soon as he heard the bell he ran to meet Madame Bovary, took +her shawl, and put away under the shop-counter the thick list shoes that +she wore over her boots when there was snow. + +First they played some hands at trente-et-un; next Monsieur Homais +played écarté with Emma; Léon behind her gave her advice. Standing up +with his hands on the back of her chair, he saw the teeth of her comb +that bit into her chignon. With every movement that she made to throw +her cards the right side of her bodice was drawn up. From her turned-up +hair a dark color fell over her back, and growing gradually paler, lost +itself little by little in the shade. Then her skirt fell on both sides +of her chair, puffing out, full of folds, and reaching the floor. When +Léon occasionally felt the sole of his boot resting on it, he drew back +as if he had trodden upon some one. + +When the game of cards was over, the druggist and the Doctor played +dominoes, and Emma, changing her place, leant her elbow on the table, +turning over the leaves of "L'Illustration." She had brought her ladies' +journal with her. Léon sat down near her; they looked at the engravings +together, and waited for each other at the bottom of the pages. She +often begged him to read her the verses; Léon declaimed them in a +languid voice, to which he carefully gave a dying fall in the love +passages. But the noise of the dominoes annoyed him. Monsieur Homais was +strong at the game; he could beat Charles and give him a double-six. +Then, the three hundred finished, they both stretched themselves out in +front of the fire, and were soon asleep. The fire was dying out in the +cinders; the teapot was empty, Léon was still reading. Emma listened to +him, mechanically turning round the lamp-shade, on the gauze of which +were painted clowns in carriages, and tight-rope dancers with their +balancing-poles. Léon stopped, pointing with a gesture to his sleeping +audience; then they talked in low tones, and their conversation seemed +the more sweet to them because it was unheard. + +Thus a kind of bond was established between them, a constant commerce of +books and of romances. Monsieur Bovary, little given to jealousy, did +not trouble himself about it. + +On his birthday he received a beautiful phrenological head, all marked +with figures to the thorax, and painted blue. This was an attention of +the clerk's. He showed him many others, even to doing errands for him at +Rouen; and the book of a novelist having made the mania for cactuses +fashionable, Léon bought some for Madame Bovary, bringing them back on +his knees in the "Hirondelle," pricking his fingers with their stiff +hairs. + +She had a board with a balustrade fixed against her window to hold the +pots. The clerk, too, had his small hanging garden; they saw each other +tending their flowers at their windows. + +Of the windows of the village there was one yet more often occupied; for +on Sundays, from morning to night, and every morning when the weather +was bright, one could see at the dormer-window of a garret the profile +of Monsieur Binet bending over his lathe, whose monotonous humming could +be heard at the Lion d'Or. + +One evening on coming home Léon found in his room a rug in velvet and +wool with leaves on a pale ground. He called Madame Homais, Monsieur +Homais, Justin, the children, the cook; he spoke of it to his chief; +every one wished to see this rug. Why did the doctor's wife give the +clerk presents? It looked queer. They decided that she must be in love +with him. + +He made this seem likely, so ceaselessly did he talk of her charms and +of her wit; so much so, that Binet once roughly answered him: + +"What does it matter to me since I'm not in her set?" + +He tortured himself to find out how he could make his declaration to +her, and, always halting between the fear of displeasing her and the +shame of being such a coward, he wept with discouragement and desire. +Then he took energetic resolutions, wrote letters that he tore up, put +it off to times that he again deferred. Often he set out with the +determination to dare all; but this resolution soon deserted him in +Emma's presence, and when Charles, dropping in, invited him to jump into +his chaise to go with him to see some patient in the neighborhood, he at +once accepted, bowed to madame, and went out. Her husband, was he not +something belonging to her? + +As to Emma, she did not ask herself whether she loved. Love, she +thought, must come suddenly, with great outbursts and lightnings,--a +hurricane of the skies, which falls upon life, revolutionizes it, roots +up the will like a leaf, and sweeps the whole heart into the abyss. She +did not know that on the terraces of houses lakes are formed when the +pipes are choked, and she would thus have remained in her security when +she suddenly discovered a rent in its wall. + + + + +V. + +SMOTHERED FLAMES. + + +It was a Sunday in February, an afternoon when the snow was falling. + +They had all, Monsieur and Madame Bovary, Homais, and Monsieur Léon, +gone to see a yarn-mill that was being built in the valley a mile and +half from Yonville. The druggist had taken Napoléon and Athalie to give +them some exercise, and Justin accompanied them, carrying the umbrellas +on his shoulder. + +Nothing, however, could be less curious than this curiosity. A great +piece of waste ground, on which pell-mell, amid a mass of sand and +stones, were a few brake-wheels, already rusty, surrounded by a +quadrangular building pierced by a number of little windows. The +building was unfinished; the sky could be seen through the joists of the +roofing. Attached to the top-plank of the gable a bunch of straw mixed +with corn-ears fluttered its tricolored ribbons in the wind. + +Homais was talking. He explained to the company the future importance of +this establishment, computed the strength of the floorings, the +thickness of the walls, and regretted extremely not having a yard-stick +such as Monsieur Binet possessed for his own special use. + +Emma, who had taken his arm, bent lightly against his shoulder, and she +looked at the sun's disc shedding afar through the mist his pale +splendor. She turned. Charles was there. His cap was drawn down over his +eyebrows, and his two thick lips were trembling, which added a look of +stupidity to his face; his very back, his calm back, was irritating to +behold, and she saw written upon his coat all the platitude of the +bearer. + +While she was considering him thus, tasting in her irritation a sort of +depraved pleasure, Léon made a step forward. The cold that made him pale +seemed to add a more gentle languor to his face; between his cravat and +his neck the somewhat loose collar of his shirt showed the skin; the +lobe of his ear looked out from beneath a lock of hair, and his large +blue eyes, raised to the clouds, seemed to Emma more limpid and more +beautiful than those mountain-lakes where the heavens are mirrored. + +"Wretched boy!" suddenly cried the chemist. + +And he ran to his son, who had just precipitated himself into a heap of +lime in order to whiten his boots. At the reproaches with which he was +being overwhelmed Napoléon began to roar, while Justin dried his shoes +with a wisp of straw. But a knife was wanted; Charles offered his. + +"Ah!" she said to herself, "he carries a knife in his pocket like a +peasant." + +The hoar-frost was falling, and they turned back to Yonville. + +In the evening Madame Bovary did not go to her neighbor's, and when +Charles had left and she felt herself alone, the comparison recurred +with the clearness of a sensation almost actual, and with that +lengthening of perspective which memory gives to things. Looking from +her bed at the clear fire that was burning, she still saw, as she had +down there, Léon standing up with one hand bending his cane, and with +the other holding Athalie, who was quietly sucking a piece of ice. She +thought him charming; she could not tear herself away from him; she +recalled his other attitudes on other days, the words he had spoken, the +sound of his voice, his whole person; and she repeated, pouting out her +lips as if for a kiss-- + +"Yes, charming! charming! Is he not in love?" she asked herself; "but +with whom? With me?" + +All the proofs arose before her at once; her heart leapt. The flame of +the fire threw a joyous light upon the ceiling; she turned on her back, +stretching out her arms. + +Then began the eternal lamentation: "Oh, if Heaven had but willed it! +And why not? What prevented it?" + +When Charles came home at midnight, she seemed to have just awakened, +and as he made a noise undressing, she complained of a headache, then +asked carelessly what had happened that evening. + +"Monsieur Léon," he said, "went to his room early." + +She could not help smiling, and she fell asleep, her soul filled with a +new delight. + +The next day, at dusk, she received a visit from Monsieur Lheureux, the +draper. He was a man of ability, was this shopkeeper. Born a Gascon but +bred a Norman, he grafted upon his southern volubility the cunning of +the Cauchois. His fat, flabby, beardless face seemed dyed by a decoction +of liquorice, and his white hair made even more vivid the keen +brilliance of his small black eyes. No one knew what he had been +formerly; a pedlar, said some, a banker at Routot, according to others. +What was certain was, that he made complex calculations in his head that +would have frightened Binet himself. Polite to obsequiousness, he always +held himself with his back bent in the position of one who bows or who +invites. + +After leaving at the door his hat surrounded with crape, he put down a +green bandbox on the table, and began by complaining to madame, with +many civilities, that he should have remained till that day without +gaining her confidence. A poor shop like his was not made to attract a +"fashionable lady;" he emphasized the words; yet she had only to +command, and he would undertake to provide her with anything she might +wish, either in haberdashery or linen, millinery or fancy goods, for he +went to town regularly four times a month. He was connected with the +best houses. You could speak of him at the "Trois Frères," at the "Barbe +d'Or," or at the "Grand Sauvage;" all these gentlemen knew him as well +as the insides of their pockets. To-day, then, he had come to show +madame, in passing, various articles he happened to have, thanks to the +most rare opportunity. And he pulled out half-a-dozen embroidered +collars from the box. + +Madame Bovary examined them. "I do not require anything," she said. + +Then Monsieur Lheureux delicately exhibited three Algerian scarves, +several packets of English needles, a pair of straw slippers, and, +finally, four eggcups in cocoa-nut wood, carved in open-work by +convicts. Then, with both hands on the table, his neck stretched out, +his figure bent forward, open-mouthed, he watched Emma's look, who was +walking up and down undecided amid these goods. From time to time, as if +to remove some dust, he filliped with his nail the silk of the scarves +spread out at full length, and they rustled with a little noise, making +in the green twilight the gold spangles of their tissue scintillate like +little stars. + +"How much are they?" + +"A mere nothing," he replied, "a mere nothing. But there's no hurry; +whenever it's convenient. We are not Jews." + +She reflected for a few moments, and ended by again declining Monsieur +Lheureux's offer. He replied quite unconcernedly: + +"Very well. We shall understand each other by and by. I have always got +on with ladies--if I didn't with my own!" + +Emma smiled. + +"I wanted to tell you," he went on good-naturedly, after his joke, "that +it isn't the money I should trouble about. Why, I could give you some, +if need be." + +She made a gesture of surprise. + +"Ah!" said he quickly and in a low voice, "I shouldn't have to go far to +find you some, rely on that." + +And he began asking after Père Tellier, the proprietor of the "Café +Français," whom Monsieur Bovary was then attending. + +"What's the matter with Père Tellier? He coughs so that he shakes his +whole house, and I'm afraid he'll soon want a deal covering rather than +a flannel vest. He was such a rake as a young man! That sort of people, +madame, have not the least regularity; he's burnt up with brandy. Still +it's sad, all the same, to see an acquaintance go off." + +And while he fastened up his box he discoursed about the doctor's +patients. + +"It's the weather, no doubt," he said, looking frowningly at the floor, +"that causes these illnesses. I, too, don't feel the thing. One of these +days I shall even have to consult the doctor for a pain I have in my +back. Well, good-bye, Madame Bovary. At your service; your very humble +servant." And he closed the door gently. + +Emma had her dinner served in her bedroom on a tray by the fireside; she +was a long time over it; everything was well with her. + +"How good I was!" she said to herself, thinking of the scarves. + +She heard some steps on the stairs. It was Léon. She got up and took +from the chest of drawers the first of a pile of dusters to be hemmed. +When he came in she seemed very busy. + +The conversation languished; Madame Bovary gave it up every few minutes, +while he himself seemed quite embarrassed. Seated on a low chair near +the fire, he turned round in his fingers the ivory thimble-case. She +stitched on, or from time to time turned down the hem of the cloth with +her nail. She did not speak; he was silent, captivated by her silence, +as he would have been by her speech. + +"Poor fellow!" she thought. + +"How have I displeased her?" he asked himself. + +At last, however, Léon said that he should have, one of these days, to +go to Rouen on some office business. + +"Your music subscription is out; am I to renew it?" + +"No," she replied. + +"Why?" + +"Because--" + +And pursing her lips she slowly drew a long stitch of gray thread. + +This work irritated Léon. It seemed to roughen the ends of her fingers. +A gallant phrase came into his head, but he did not risk it. + +"Then you are giving it up?" he went on. + +"What?" she asked hurriedly. "Music? Ah! yes! Have I not my house to +look after, my husband to attend to, a thousand things, in fact, many +duties that must be considered first?" + +She looked at the clock. Charles was late. Then she affected anxiety. +Two or three times she even repeated, "He is so good!" + +The clerk was fond of Monsieur Bovary. But this tenderness in his behalf +astonished him unpleasantly; nevertheless he took up his praises, which +he said every one was singing, especially the chemist. + +"Ah! he is a good fellow," continued Emma. + +"Certainly," replied the clerk. + +And he began talking of Madame Homais, whose very untidy appearance +generally made them laugh. + +"What does it matter?" interrupted Emma. "A good housewife does not +trouble about her appearance." + +Then she relapsed into silence. + +It was the same on the following days; her talk, her manners, everything +changed. She took interest in the house-work, went to church regularly, +and looked after her servant with more severity. + +She took Berthe from nurse. When visitors called, Félicité brought her +in, and Madame Bovary undressed her to show off her limbs. She declared +she adored children; this was her consolation, her joy, her passion, and +she accompanied her caresses with lyrical outbursts which would have +reminded any one but the Yonville people of Sachette in "Nôtre Dame de +Paris." + +When Charles came home he found his slippers put to warm near the fire. +His waistcoat now never wanted lining, nor his shirt buttons, and it was +quite a pleasure to see in the cupboard the nightcaps arranged in piles +of the same height. She no longer grumbled as formerly at taking a turn +in the garden; what he proposed was always done, although she did not +understand the wishes to which she submitted without a murmur; and when +Léon saw him by his fireside after dinner, his two hands on his stomach, +his two feet on the fender, his cheeks red with feeding, his eyes moist +with happiness, the child crawling along the carpet, and this woman with +the slender waist who came behind his armchair to kiss his forehead: + +"What madness!" he said to himself. "And how to reach her!" + +And thus she seemed so virtuous and inaccessible to him that he lost all +hope, even the faintest. But by this renunciation he placed her on an +extraordinary pinnacle. To him she stood outside those fleshly +attributes from which he had nothing to obtain, and in his heart she +rose ever, and became farther removed from him after the magnificent +manner of an apotheosis that is taking wing. It was one of those pure +feelings that do not interfere with life, that are cultivated because +they are rare, and whose loss would afflict more than their passion +rejoices. + +Emma grew thinner, her cheeks paler, her face longer. With her black +hair, her large eyes, her aquiline nose, her birdlike walk, and always +silent now, did she not seem to be passing through life scarcely +touching it, and to bear on her brow the vague impress of some divine +destiny? She was so sad and so calm, at once so gentle and so reserved, +that near her one felt oneself seized by an icy charm, as we shudder in +churches at the perfume of the flowers mingling with the cold of the +marble. The others even did not escape from this seduction. The chemist +said-- + +"She is a woman of great parts, who wouldn't be misplaced in a +sub-prefecture." + +The housewives admired her economy, the patients her politeness, the +poor her charity. + +But she was eaten up with desires, with rage, with hate. That dress with +the narrow folds hid a distracted heart, of whose torment those chaste +lips said nothing. She was in love with Léon, and sought solitude that +she might with the more ease delight in his image. The sight of his form +troubled the voluptuousness of this meditation. Emma thrilled at the +sound of his step; then in his presence the emotion subsided, and +afterwards there remained to her only an immense astonishment that ended +in sorrow. + +Léon did not know that when he left her in despair, she rose after he +had gone to see him in the street. She concerned herself about his +comings and goings; she watched his face; she invented quite a history +to find an excuse for going to his room. The chemist's wife seemed happy +to her to sleep under the same roof, and her thoughts constantly centred +upon this house, like the "Lion d'Or" pigeons, who came there to dip +their red feet and white wings in its gutters. But the more Emma +recognized her love, the more she crushed it down, that it might not be +evident, that she might make it less. She would have liked Léon to guess +it, and she imagined chances, catastrophes that should facilitate this. +What restrained her was, no doubt, idleness and fear, and a sense of +shame also. She thought she had repulsed him too much, that the time was +past, that all was lost. Then pride, the joy of being able to say to +herself, "I am virtuous," and to look at herself in the glass taking +resigned poses, consoled her a little for the sacrifice she believed she +was making. + +Then the lusts of the flesh, the longing for money, and the melancholy +of passion, all blended themselves into one suffering, and instead of +turning her thoughts from it, she clave to it the more, urging herself +to pain, and seeking everywhere occasions for it. She was irritated by +an ill-served dish or by a half-open door; bewailed the velvets she had +not, the happiness she had missed, her too exalted dreams, her narrow +home. + +What exasperated her was that Charles did not seem to notice her +anguish. His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an +imbecile insult, and his sureness on this point ingratitude. For whose +sake, then, was she virtuous? Was it not for him, the obstacle to all +felicity, the cause of all misery, and, as it were, the sharp clasp of +that complex strap that buckled her in on all sides? + +On him alone, then, she concentrated all the various hatreds that +resulted from her boredom, and every effort to diminish only augmented +it; for this useless trouble was added to the other reasons for despair, +and contributed still more to the separation between them. Her own +gentleness to herself made her rebel against him. Domestic mediocrity +drove her to lewd fancies, marriage tendernesses to adulterous desires. +She would have liked Charles to beat her, that she might have a better +right to hate him, to revenge herself upon him. She was surprised +sometimes at the atrocious conjectures that came into her thoughts, and +she had to go on smiling, to hear repeated to her at all hours that she +was happy, to pretend to be happy, to let it be believed. + +Yet she had loathing of this hypocrisy. She was seized with the +temptation to flee somewhere with Léon to try a new life; but at once a +vague chasm full of darkness opened within her soul. + +"Besides, he no longer loves me," she thought. "What is to become of me? +What help is to be hoped for, what consolation, what solace?" + +She was left broken, breathless, inert, sobbing in a low voice, with +flowing tears. + +"Why don't you tell master?" the servant asked her when she came in +during these crises. + +"It is the nerves," said Emma. "Do not speak to him of it; it would +worry him." + +"Ah! yes," Félicité went on, "you are just like La Guérine, Père +Guérin's daughter, the fisherman at Pollet, that I used to know at +Dieppe before I came to you. She was so sad, so sad, that to see her +standing upright on the threshold of her house, she seemed to you like a +winding-sheet spread out before the door. Her illness, it appears, was +a kind of fog that she had in her head, and the doctors could not do +anything, nor the priest either. When she was taken too bad she went off +quite alone to the seashore, so that the customs officer, going his +rounds, often found her lying flat on her face, crying on the shingle. +Then, after her marriage, it went off, they say." + +"But with me," replied Emma, "it was after marriage that it began." + + + + +VI. + +SPIRITUAL COUNSEL. + + +One evening when the window was open, and she, sitting by it, had been +watching Lestiboudois, the beadle, trimming the box, she suddenly heard +the Angelus ringing. + +It was the beginning of April, when the primroses are in bloom, and a +warm wind blows over the flower-beds newly turned, and the gardens, like +women, seem to be getting ready for the summer fêtes. Through the bars +of the arbor and away beyond, the river could be seen in the fields, +meandering through the grass in wandering curves. The evening vapors +rose between the leafless poplars, touching their outlines with a violet +tint, paler and more transparent than a subtle gauze caught athwart +their branches. In the distance cattle moved about; neither their steps +nor their lowing could be heard; and the bell, still ringing through the +air, kept up its peaceful lamentation. + +With this repeated tinkling the thoughts of the young woman lost +themselves in old memories of her youth and school-days. She remembered +the great candlesticks that rose above the vases full of flowers on the +altar, and the tabernacle with its small columns. She would have liked +to be once more lost in the long line of white veils, marked off here +and there by the stiff black hoods of the good sisters bending over +their prie-Dieu. At mass on Sundays, when she looked up, she saw the +gentle face of the Virgin amid the blue smoke of the rising incense. +Then she was moved; she felt herself weak and quite deserted, like the +down of a bird whirled by the tempest, and it was unconsciously that she +went towards the church, inclined to no matter what devotions, so that +her soul was absorbed and all existence lost in it. + +On the Place she met Lestiboudois on his way back, for, in order not to +shorten his day's labor, he preferred interrupting his work, then +beginning it again, so that he rang the Angelus to suit his own +convenience. Besides, the ringing over a little earlier warned the lads +of catechism hour. + +Already a few who had arrived were playing marbles on the stones of the +cemetery. Others, astride the wall, swung their legs, kicking with their +clogs the large nettles growing between the little enclosure and the +newest graves. This was the only green spot. All the rest was but +stones, always covered with a fine powder, despite the vestry-broom. + +The children in list shoes ran about there as if it were an enclosure +made for them. The shouts of their voices could be heard through the +humming of the bell. This grew less and less with the swinging of the +great rope that, hanging from the top of the belfry, dragged its end on +the ground. Swallows flitted to and fro uttering little cries, cut the +air with the edge of their wings, and swiftly returned to their yellow +nests under the tiles of the coping. At the end of the church a lamp was +burning, the wick of a night-light in a glass hung up. Its light from a +distance looked like a white stain trembling in the oil. A long ray of +the sun fell across the nave and seemed to darken the lower sides and +the corners. + +"Where is the curé?" asked Madame Bovary of one of the lads, who was +amusing himself by shaking a swivel in a hole too large for it. + +"He is just coming," he answered. + +And in fact the door of the presbytery grated; Abbé Bournisien appeared; +the children, pell-mell, fled into the church. + +"These young scamps!" murmured the priest, "always the same!" Then, +picking up a catechism all in rags that he had struck with his foot, +"They respect nothing!" But as soon as he caught sight of Madame Bovary, +"Excuse me," he said; "I did not recognize you." + +He thrust the catechism into his pocket, and stopped short, balancing +the heavy vestry key between his two fingers. + +The light of the setting sun that fell full upon his face paled the +lasting of his cassock, shiny at the elbows, ravelled at the hem. Grease +and tobacco stains followed along his broad chest the lines of the +buttons, and grew more numerous the farther they were from his +neckcloth, in which the massive folds of his red chin rested; this was +dotted with yellow spots, that disappeared beneath the coarse hair of +his greyish beard. He had just dined, and was breathing noisily. + +"How are you?" he added. + +"Not well," replied Emma; "I am ill." + +"Well, and so am I," answered the priest. "These first warm days weaken +one most remarkably, don't they? But, after all, we are born to suffer, +as St. Paul says. But what does Monsieur Bovary think of it?" + +"He!" she said with a gesture of contempt. + +"What!" replied the good fellow, quite astonished, "doesn't he prescribe +something for you?" + +"Ah!" said Emma, "it is no earthly remedy I need." + +But the curé from time to time looked into the church, where the +kneeling boys were shouldering one another, and tumbling over like packs +of cards. + +"I should like to know--" she went on. + +"You look out, Riboudet," cried the priest in an angry voice; "I'll warm +your ears, you imp!" Then turning to Emma. "He's Boudet the carpenter's +son; his parents are well off, and let him do just as he pleases. Yet he +could learn quickly if he would, for he is very sharp. And so sometimes +for a joke I call him _Ri_boudet (like the road one takes to go to +Maromme), and I even say '_Mon_ Riboudet.' Ha! ha! '_Mont_ Riboudet.' +The other day I repeated that jest to Monsignor, and he laughed at it; +he condescended to laugh at it. And how is Monsieur Bovary?" + +She seemed not to hear him. And he went on: + +"Always very busy, no doubt; for he and I are certainly the busiest +people in the parish. But he is doctor of the body," he added with a +thick laugh, "and I of the soul." + +She fixed her pleading eyes upon the priest. "Yes," she said, "you +solace all sorrows." + +"Ah! don't talk to me of it, Madame Bovary. This morning I had to go to +Bas-Diauville for a cow that was ill; they thought it was under a +spell. All their cows, I don't know how it is--But pardon me! +Longuemarre and Boudet! Bless me! will you leave off?" + +And with a bound he ran into the church. + +The boys were just then clustering round the large desk, climbing over +the precentor's footstool, opening the missal; and others on tiptoe were +just about to venture into the confessional. But the priest suddenly +distributed a shower of cuffs among them. Seizing them by the collars of +their coats, he lifted them from the ground, and deposited them on their +knees on the stones of the choir, firmly, as if he meant planting them +there. + +"Yes," said he, when he returned to Emma, unfolding his large cotton +handkerchief, one corner of which he put between his teeth, "farmers are +much to be pitied." + +"Others, too," she replied. + +"Assuredly. Town-laborers, for example." + +"It is not they--" + +"Pardon! I've there known poor mothers of families, virtuous women, I +assure you, real saints, who wanted even bread." + +"But those," replied Emma, and the corners of her mouth twitched as she +spoke, "those, Monsieur le Curé, who have bread and have no--" + +"Fire in the winter," said the priest. + +"Oh, what does that matter?" + +"What! What does it matter? It seems to me that when one has firing and +food--for, after all--" + +"My God! my God!" she sighed. + +"Do you feel unwell?" he asked, approaching her anxiously. "It is +indigestion, no doubt? You must get home, Madame Bovary; drink a little +tea, that will strengthen you, or else a glass of fresh water with a +little moist sugar." + +"Why?" And she looked like one awaking from a dream. + +"Well, you see, you were putting your hand to your forehead. I thought +you felt faint." Then, bethinking himself, "But you were asking me +something? What was it? I really don't remember." + +"I? Nothing! nothing!" repeated Emma. + +And the glance she cast round her slowly fell upon the old man in the +cassock. They looked at one another face to face without speaking. + +"Then, Madame Bovary," he said at last, "excuse me, but duty first, you +know; I must look after my good-for-nothings. The first communion will +soon be upon us, and I fear we shall be behind after all. So after +Ascension Day I keep them _recta_ an extra hour every Wednesday. Poor +children! One cannot lead them too soon into the path of the Lord, as, +moreover, he has himself recommended us to do by the mouth of His Divine +Son. Good health to you, madame; my respects to your husband." + +And he went into the church making a genuflexion as soon as he reached +the door. + +Emma saw him disappear between the double row of forms, walking with +heavy tread, his head a little bent over his shoulder, and with his two +hands half-open behind him. + +Then she turned on her heel with one movement, like a statue on a pivot, +and went homewards. But the loud voice of the priest, the clear voices +of the boys still reached her ears, and went on behind her. + +"Are you a Christian?" + +"Yes, I am a Christian?" + +"What is a Christian?" + +"He who, being baptized--baptized--baptized--" + +She went up the steps of the staircase holding on to the banisters, and +when she was in her room threw herself into an armchair. + +The whitish light of the window-panes fell with soft undulations. The +furniture in its place seemed to have become more immobile, and to lose +itself in the shadow as in an ocean of darkness. The fire was out, the +clock went on ticking, and Emma vaguely marvelled at this calm of all +things while within herself was such tumult. But little Berthe was there, +between the window and the work-table, tottering on her knitted shoes, +and trying to come to her mother to catch hold of the ends of her +apron-strings. + +"Leave me alone," said the latter, putting her from her with her hand. + +The little girl soon came up closer against her knees, and leaning on +them with her arms, she looked up with her large blue eyes, while a +small thread of pure saliva dribbled from her lips on to the silk apron. + +"Leave me alone," repeated the young woman quite irritably. + +Her face frightened the child, who began to scream. + +"Will you leave me alone?" she said, pushing her with her elbow. + +Berthe fell at the foot of the drawers against the brass handle, cutting +against it her cheek, which began to bleed. Madame Bovary sprang to lift +her up, broke the bell-rope, called for the servant with all her might, +and she was just going to curse herself when Charles appeared. It was +the dinner-hour; he had come home. + +"Look, dear!" said Emma, in a calm voice, "the little one fell down +while she was playing, and has hurt herself." + +Charles reassured her; the case was not a serious one, and he went for +some sticking plaster. + +Madame Bovary did not go downstairs to the dining-room; she wished to +remain alone to look after the child. Then, watching her sleep, the +little anxiety she felt gradually wore off, and she seemed very stupid +to herself, and very good to have been so worried just now at so little. +Berthe, in fact, no longer sobbed. Her breathing now imperceptibly +raised the cotton covering. Big tears lay in the corner of the +half-closed eyelids, through whose lashes one could see two pale sunken +pupils; the plaster stuck on her cheek drew the skin obliquely. + +"It is very strange," thought Emma, "how ugly this child is!" + +When at eleven o'clock Charles came back from the chemist's shop, +whither he had gone after dinner to return the remainder of the +sticking-plaster, he found his wife standing by the cradle. + +"I assure you it's nothing," he said, kissing her on the forehead. +"Don't worry, my poor darling; you will make yourself ill." + +He had stayed a long time at the chemist's. Although he had not seemed +much moved, Homais, nevertheless, had exerted himself to buoy him up, to +"keep up his spirits." Then they had talked of the various dangers that +threaten childhood, of the carelessness of servants. Madame Homais knew +something of it, having still upon her chest the marks left by a basin +full of soup that a cook had formerly dropped on her pinafore, and her +good parents took no end of trouble for her. The knives were not +sharpened, nor the floors waxed; there were iron gratings to the windows +and strong bars across the fireplace; the little Homaises, in spite of +their spirit, could not stir without some one watching them; at the +slightest cold their father stuffed them with pectorals; and until they +were turned four they all, without pity, had to wear wadded +head-protectors. This, it is true, was a fancy of Madame Homais's; her +husband was inwardly afflicted at it. Fearing the possible consequences +of such compression to the intellectual organs, he even went so far as +to say to her, "Do you want to make Caribs or Botocudos of them?" + +Charles, however, had several times tried to interrupt the conversation. +"I should like to speak to you," he had whispered in the clerk's ear, +who went upstairs in front of him. + +"Can he suspect anything?" Léon asked himself. His heart beat, and he +racked his brain with surmises. + +At last, Charles, having shut the door, asked him to see himself what +would be the price at Rouen of a fine daguerreotype. It was a +sentimental surprise he intended for his wife, a delicate attention--his +portrait in a frock-coat. But he wanted first to know how much it would +be. The inquiries would not put Monsieur Léon out, since he went to town +almost every week. + +Why? Monsieur Homais suspected some "young man's affair" at the bottom +of it, an intrigue. But he was mistaken. Léon was after no love-making. +He was sadder than ever, as Madame Lefrançois saw from the amount of +food he left on his plate. To find out more about it she questioned the +tax-collector. Binet answered roughly that he wasn't paid by the +police. + +All the same, his companion seemed very strange to him, for Léon often +threw himself back in his chair, and stretching out his arms, complained +vaguely of life. + +"It's because you don't take enough recreation," said the collector. + +"What recreation?" + +"If I were you I'd have a lathe." + +"But I don't know how to turn," answered the clerk. + +"Ah! that's true," said the other, rubbing his chin with an air of +mingled contempt and satisfaction. + +Léon was weary of loving without any result; moreover, he was beginning +to feel that depression caused by the repetition of the same kind of +life, when no interest inspires and no hope sustains it. He was so bored +with Yonville and the Yonvillers, that the sight of certain persons, of +certain houses, irritated him beyond endurance; and the chemist, good +fellow though he was, was becoming absolutely unbearable to him. Yet the +prospect of a new condition of life frightened as much as it seduced +him. + +This apprehension soon changed into impatience, and then Paris from afar +sounded its fanfare of masked balls with the laugh of grisettes. As he +was to finish reading there, why not set out at once? What prevented +him? And he began making home preparations; he arranged his occupations +beforehand. He furnished in his head an apartment. He would lead an +artist's life there! He would take lessons on the guitar! He would have +a dressing-gown, a Basque cap, blue velvet slippers! He even already +was admiring two crossed foils over his chimney-piece, with a +death's-head on the guitar above them. + +The difficulty was the consent of his mother; nothing, however, seemed +more reasonable. Even his employer advised him to go to some other +chambers where he could advance more rapidly. Taking a middle course, +then, Léon looked for some place as second clerk at Rouen; found none, +and at last wrote his mother a long letter full of details, in which he +set forth the reasons for going to live at Paris immediately. She +consented. + +He did not hurry. Every day for a month Hivert carried boxes, valises, +parcels for him from Yonville to Rouen and from Rouen to Yonville; and +when Léon had packed up his wardrobe, had his three armchairs +restuffed, bought a stock of cravats, in a word, had made more +preparations than for a voyage round the world, he put it off from week +to week, until he received a second letter from his mother urging him to +leave, since he wanted to pass his examination before the vacation. + +When the moment for the farewells had come, Madame Homais wept, Justin +sobbed; Homais, as a man of nerve, concealed his emotion; he wished to +carry his friend's overcoat himself as far as the gate of the notary, +who was taking Léon to Rouen in his carriage. The latter had just time +to bid farewell to Monsieur Bovary. + +When he reached the head of the stairs he stopped, he was so out of +breath. On his coming in, Madame Bovary rose hurriedly. + +"It is I again!" said Léon. + +"I was sure of it!" + +She bit her lips, and a rush of blood flowing under her skin made her +red from the roots of her hair to the top of her collar. She remained +standing, leaning with her shoulder against the wainscot. + +"The doctor is not here?" he went on. + +"He is out." She repeated, "He is out." + +Then there was silence. They looked one at the other, and their +thoughts, confounded in the same agony, clung close together like two +throbbing breasts. + +"I should like to kiss Berthe," said Léon. + +Emma went down a few steps and called Félicité. + +He threw one long look around him that took in the walls, the brackets, +the fireplace, as if to penetrate everything, carry away everything. But +she returned, and the servant brought Berthe, who was swinging a +windmill roof downward at the end of a string. Léon kissed her several +times on the neck. + +"Good-bye, poor child! good-bye, dear little one! good-bye!" + +And he gave her back to her mother. + +"Take her away," she said. + +They remained alone--Madame Bovary, her back turned, her face pressed +against a window-pane; Léon held his cap in his hand, knocking it softly +against his thigh. + +"It is going to rain," said Emma. + +"I have a cloak," he answered. + +"Ah!" + +She turned round, her chin lowered, her forehead bent forward. The light +fell on it as on a piece of marble to the curve of the eyebrows, without +one's being able to guess what Emma was seeing in the horizon or what +she was thinking within herself. + +"Well, good-bye," he sighed. + +She raised her head with a quick movement. + +"Yes, good-bye--go!" + +They advanced toward each other; he held out his hand; she hesitated. + +"In the English fashion, then," she said, giving her own hand wholly to +him, and forcing a laugh. + +Léon felt it between his fingers, and the very essence of all his being +seemed to pass down into that moist palm. Then he opened his hand; their +eyes met again, and he disappeared. + +When he reached the market-place, he stopped and hid behind a pillar to +look for the last time at this white house with the four green blinds. +He thought he saw a shadow behind the window in the room; but the +curtain, sliding along the pole as though no one were touching it, +slowly opened its long oblique folds, that spread out with a single +movement, and thus hung straight and motionless as a plaster wall. Léon +set off running. + +From afar he saw his employer's gig in the road, and by it a man in a +coarse apron holding the horse. Homais and Monsieur Guillaumin were +talking. They were waiting for him. + +"Embrace me," said the chemist with tears in his eyes. "Here is your +coat, my good friend. Mind the cold; take care of yourself; look after +yourself." + +"Come, Léon, jump in," said the notary. + +Homais bent over the splash-board, and in a voice broken by sobs, +uttered these three sad words: + +"A pleasant journey!" + +"Good-night," said Monsieur Guillaumin. "Give him his head." + +They set out, and Homais went back. + + * * * * * + +Madame Bovary had opened her window overlooking the garden and watched +the clouds. They were gathering round the sunset on the side of Rouen, +and swiftly rolled back their black columns, behind which the great rays +of the sun looked out like the golden arrows of a suspended trophy, +while the rest of the empty heavens was white as porcelain. But a gust +of wind bowed the poplars, and suddenly the rain fell; it pattered +against the green leaves. Then the sun reappeared, the hens clucked, +sparrows shook their wings in the damp thickets, and the pools of water +on the gravel as they flowed away carried off the pink flowers of an +acacia. + +"Ah! how far off he must be already!" she thought. + +Monsieur Homais, as usual, came at half-past six during dinner. + +"Well," said he, "so we've sent off our young friend!" + +"So it seems," replied the doctor. Then turning on his chair: "Any news +at home?" + +"Nothing much. Only my wife was a little moved this afternoon. You know +women--a nothing upsets them, especially my wife. And we should be wrong +to object to that, since their nervous organization is much more +malleable than ours." + +"Poor Léon!" said Charles. "How will he live at Paris? Will he get used +to it?" + +Madame Bovary sighed. + +"Get along!" said the chemist, smacking his lips. "The outings at +restaurants, the masked balls, the champagne--all that'll be jolly +enough, I assure you." + +"I don't think he'll go wrong," objected Bovary. + +"Nor do I," said Monsieur Homais quickly; "although he'll have to do +like the rest for fear of passing for a Jesuit. And you don't know what +a life those dogs lead in the Latin Quarter with actresses. Besides, +students are thought a great deal of at Paris. Provided they have a few +accomplishments, they are received in the best society; there are even +ladies of the Faubourg Saint-Germain who fall in love with them, which +subsequently furnishes them opportunities for making very good matches." + +"But," said the doctor, "I fear for him that down there--" + +"You are right," interrupted the chemist; "that is the reverse of the +medal. And one is constantly obliged to keep one's hand in one's pocket +there. Thus, we will suppose you are in a public garden. An individual +presents himself, well dressed, even wearing an order, whom any one +would take for a diplomatist. He approaches you, he insinuates himself; +offers you a pinch of snuff, or picks up your hat. Then you become more +intimate; he takes you to a café, invites you to his country-house, +introduces you, between two drinks, to all sorts of people; and three +fourths of the time it's only to plunder your watch or lead you into +some pernicious step." + +"That is true," said Charles; "but I was thinking especially of +illnesses--of typhoid fever, for example, that attacks students from the +provinces." + +Emma shuddered. + +"Because of the change of regimen," continued the chemist, "and of the +perturbation that results therefrom in the whole system. And then the +water at Paris, don't you know! The dishes at restaurants, all the +spiced food, end by heating the blood, and are not worth, whatever +people may say of them, a good soup. For my own part, I have always +preferred plain living; it is more healthful. So when I was studying +pharmacy at Rouen, I boarded in a boardinghouse; I dined with the +professors." + +And thus he went on, expounding his opinions generally and his personal +likings, until Justin came to fetch him for a mulled egg that was +wanted. + +"Not a moment's peace!" he cried; "always at it! I can't go out for a +minute! Like a plough-horse, I have always to be moiling and toiling. +What drudgery!" Then, when he was at the door, "By the way, do you know +the news?" + +"What news?" + +"That it is very likely," Homais went on, raising his eyebrows and +assuming one of his most serious expressions, "that the agricultural +meeting of the Seine-Inférieure will be held this year at +Yonville-l'Abbaye. The rumor, at all events, is going the round. This +morning the paper alluded to it. It would be of the utmost importance +for our district. But we'll talk it over later on. I can see, thank you; +Justin has the lantern." + + + + +VII. + +A WOMAN'S WHIMS. + + +The next day was a dreary one for Emma. Every thing seemed to her +enveloped in a black atmosphere floating confusedly over the exterior of +things, and sorrow was engulphed within her soul with soft shrieks such +as the winter wind makes in ruined castles. It was that reverie which we +give to things that will not return, the lassitude that seizes you after +everything done; that pain, in fine, that the interruption of every +wonted movement, the sudden cessation of any prolonged vibration, brings +on. + +As on the return from Vaubyessard, when the quadrilles were running in +her head, she was full of a gloomy melancholy, of a numb despair. Léon +reappeared, taller, handsomer, more charming, more vague. Though +separated from her, he had not left her; he was there, and the walls of +the house seemed to hold his shadow. She could not detach her eyes from +the carpet where he had walked, from those empty chairs where he had +sat. The river still flowed on, and slowly drove its ripples along the +slippery banks. They had often walked there to the murmur of the waves, +over the moss-covered pebbles. How bright the sun had been! What happy +afternoons they had seen alone in the shade at the end of the garden! He +read aloud, bareheaded, sitting on a footstool of dry sticks; the fresh +wind of the meadow set trembling the leaves of the book and the +nasturtiums of the arbor. Ah! he was gone, the only charm of her life, +the only possible hope of joy. Why had she not seized this happiness +when it came to her? Why not have kept hold of it with both hands, with +both knees, when it was about to flee from her? And she cursed herself +for not having loved Léon. She thirsted for his lips. The wish took +possession of her to run after and rejoin him, throw herself into his +arms and say to him, "It is I; I am yours." But Emma recoiled beforehand +at the difficulties of the enterprise, and her desires, increased by +regret, became only the more acute. + +Henceforth the memory of Léon was the centre of her boredom; it burnt +there more brightly than the fire travelers leave on the snow of a +Russian steppe. She sprang towards him, she pressed against him, she +stirred carefully the dying embers, sought all around her anything that +could revive it; and the most distant reminiscences, like the most +immediate occasions, what she experienced as well as what she imagined, +her voluptuous desires that were unsatisfied, her projects of happiness +that crackled in the wind like dead boughs, her sterile virtue, her lost +hopes, the domestic tête-à-tête,--she gathered it all up, took +everything, and made it all serve as fuel for her melancholy. + +The flames, however, subsided, either because the supply had exhausted +itself, or because it had been piled up too much. Love, little by +little, was quelled by absence; regret stifled beneath habit; and this +incendiary light that had empurpled her pale sky was overspread and +faded by degrees. In the supineness of her conscience she even took her +repugnance towards her husband for aspirations towards her lover, the +burning of hate for the warmth of tenderness; but as the tempest still +raged, and as passion burnt itself down to the very cinders, and no help +came, no sun rose, there was night on all sides, and she was lost in the +terrible cold that pierced her. + +Then the evil days of Tostes began again. She thought herself now far +more unhappy; for she had the experience of grief, with the certainty +that it would not end. + +A woman who had laid on herself such sacrifices could well allow herself +certain whims. She bought a gothic prie-Dieu, and in a month spent +fourteen francs on lemons for polishing her nails; she wrote to Rouen +for a blue cashmere gown; she chose one of Lheureux's finest scarves, +and wore it knotted round her waist over her dressing-gown; and, with +closed blinds and a book in her hand, she lay stretched out on a couch +in this garb. + +She often changed her coiffure; she did her hair _à la Chinoise_, in +flowing curls, in plaited coils; she parted it on one side and rolled it +under like a man's. + +She wished to learn Italian; she bought dictionaries, a grammar, and a +supply of white paper. She tried serious reading, history, and +philosophy. Sometimes in the night Charles woke up with a start, +thinking he was being called to a patient. "I'm coming," he stammered; +and it was the noise of a match Emma had struck to relight the lamp. But +her reading fared like her pieces of embroidery, all of which, only +just begun, filled her cupboard; she took it up, left it, passed on to +other books. + +She had attacks in which she could easily have been driven to commit any +folly. She maintained one day, in opposition to her husband, that she +could drink off a large glass of brandy, and, as Charles was stupid +enough to dare her to, she swallowed the brandy to the last drop. + +In spite of her vaporish airs (as the housewives of Yonville called +them), Emma, all the same, never seemed gay, and usually she had at the +corners of her mouth that immobile contraction that puckers the faces of +old maids, and those of men whose ambition has failed. She was pale all +over, white as a sheet; the skin of her nose was drawn at the nostrils, +her eyes looked at you vaguely. After discovering three gray hairs on +her temples, she talked much of her old age. + +She often fainted. One day she even spat blood, and, as Charles fussed +round her showing his anxiety-- + +"Bah!" she answered, "what does it matter?" + +Charles fled to his study and wept there, both his elbows on the table, +sitting in an armchair at his bureau under the phrenological head. + +Then he wrote to his mother to beg her to come, and they had many long +consultations together on the subject of Emma. + +What should they decide? What was to be done since she rejected all +medical treatment? + +"Do you know what your wife wants?" replied Madame Bovary, senior. "She +wants to be forced to occupy herself with some manual work. If she were +obliged, like so many others, to earn her living, she wouldn't have +these vapors, that come to her from a lot of ideas she stuffs into her +head, and from the idleness in which she lives." + +"Yet she is always busy," said Charles. + +"Ah! always busy at what? Reading novels, bad books, works against +religion, in which they mock at priests in speeches taken from Voltaire. +But all that leads you far astray, my poor child. Any one who has no +religion always ends by turning out badly." + +So they decided to stop Emma from reading novels. The enterprise did not +seem easy. The good lady undertook it. She was, when she passed through +Rouen, to go herself to the lending-library and represent that Emma had +discontinued her subscription. Would they not have a right to apply to +the police if the librarian persisted all the same in his poisonous +trade? + +The farewells of mother and daughter-in-law were cold. During the three +weeks that they had been together they had not exchanged half-a-dozen +words apart from the inquiries and phrases when they met at table and in +the evening before going to bed. + +Madame Bovary left on a Wednesday, the market-day at Yonville. + +The Place since morning had been blocked by a row of carts, which, on +end and their shafts in the air, spread all along the line of houses +from the church to the inn. On the other side there were canvas booths, +where cotton checks, blankets, and woollen stockings were sold, together +with harness for horses, and packets of blue ribbon, whose ends +fluttered in the wind. The coarse hardware was spread out on the ground +between pyramids of eggs and hampers of cheeses, from which sticky +straw stuck out. Near the corn-machines clucking hens passed their necks +through the bars of flat cages. The people, crowding in the same place +and unwilling to move thence, sometimes threatened to smash the +shop-front of the chemist. On Wednesdays his shop was never empty, and +the people pushed in less to buy drugs than for consultations, so great +was Homais's reputation in the neighboring villages. His robust aplomb +had fascinated the rustics. They considered him a greater doctor than +all the doctors. + +Emma was leaning out at the window; she was often there. The window in +the provinces replaces the theatre and the promenade, and she amused +herself with watching the crowd of boors, when she saw a gentleman in a +green velvet coat. He had on yellow gloves, although he wore heavy +gaiters; he was coming towards the doctor's house, followed by a peasant +walking with bent head and quite a thoughtful air. + +"Can I see the doctor?" he asked Justin, who was talking on the +doorsteps with Félicité, and, taking him for a servant of the house: +"Tell him that Monsieur Rodolphe Boulanger of La Huchette is here." + +It was not from territorial vanity that the new arrival added "of La +Huchette" to his name, but to make himself the better known. La +Huchette, in fact, was an estate near Yonville, where he had just bought +the château and two farms that he cultivated himself, without, however, +troubling very much about them. He lived as a bachelor, and was supposed +to have at least fifteen thousand francs a year. + +Charles came into the room. Monsieur Boulanger introduced his man, who +wanted to be bled because he felt "a tingling all over." + +"That'll purge me," he urged as an objection to all reasoning. + +So Bovary ordered a bandage and a basin, and asked Justin to hold it. +Then addressing the countryman, already pale-- + +"Don't be afraid, my lad." + +"No, no, sir," said the other; "get on." + +And with an air of bravado he held out his great arm. At the prick of +the lancet the blood spurted out, splashing against the looking-glass. + +"Hold the basin nearer," exclaimed Charles. + +"Lor!" said the peasant, "one would swear it was a little fountain +flowing. How red my blood is! That's a good sign isn't it?" + +"Sometimes," answered the doctor, "one feels nothing at first, and then +syncope sets in, and more especially with people of strong constitution +like this man." + +At these words the rustic let go the lancet-case he was twisting between +his fingers. A shudder of his shoulders made the chair-back creak. His +hat fell off. + +"I thought as much," said Bovary, pressing his finger on the vein. + +The basin was beginning to tremble in Justin's hands; his knees shook, +he turned pale. + +"Emma! Emma!" called Charles. + +With one bound she came down the staircase. + +"Some vinegar," he cried. "O dear! two at once!" + +And in his emotion he could hardly put on the compress. + +"It is nothing," said Monsieur Boulanger quietly, taking Justin in his +arms. He seated him on the table with his back resting against the wall. + +Madame Bovary began taking off his cravat. The strings of his shirt had +got into a knot, and she was for some minutes moving her light fingers +about the young fellow's neck. Then she poured some vinegar on her +cambric handkerchief; she moistened his temples with little dabs, and +then blew upon them softly. The ploughman revived, but Justin's syncope +still lasted, and his eyeballs disappeared in their pale sclerotic like +blue flowers in milk. + +"We must hide this from him," said Charles. + +Madame Bovary took the basin to put it under the table. With the +movement she made in bending down, her skirt (it was a summer frock with +four flounces, yellow, long in the waist and wide in the skirt) spread +out around her on the flags of the room; and as Emma, stooping, +staggered a little as she stretched out her arms, the stuff here and +there gave with the inflections of her bust. Then she went to fetch a +bottle of water, and she was melting some pieces of sugar when the +chemist arrived. The servant had been to fetch him in the tumult. Seeing +his pupil with his eyes open he drew a long breath; then going round him +he looked at him from head to foot. + +"Fool!" he said, "really a little fool! A fool in four letters! A +phlebotomy's a big affair, isn't it! And a fellow who isn't afraid of +anything; a kind of squirrel, just as he is who climbs to vertiginous +heights to shake down nuts. Oh, yes! you just talk to me, boast about +yourself! Here's a fine fitness for practising pharmacy later on; for +under serious circumstances you may be called before the tribunals in +order to enlighten the minds of the magistrates, and you would have to +keep your head then, to reason, show yourself a man, or else pass for an +imbecile." + +Justin did not answer. The chemist went on-- + +"Who asked you to come? You are always pestering the doctor and madame. +On Wednesday, moreover, your presence is indispensable to me. There are +now twenty people in the shop. I left everything because of the interest +I take in you. Come, get along! Sharp! Wait for me, and keep an eye on +the jars." + +When Justin, who was rearranging his dress, had gone, they talked for a +little while about fainting-fits. Madame Bovary said she had never +fainted. + +"That is extraordinary for a lady," said Monsieur Boulanger; "but some +people are very susceptible. Thus, in a duel, I have seen a second lose +consciousness at the mere sound of the loading of pistols." + +"For my part," said the chemist, "the sight of other people's blood +doesn't affect me at all, but the mere thought of my own flowing would +make me faint, if I reflected upon it too much." + +Monsieur Boulanger, however, dismissed his servant, advising him to calm +himself, since his fancy was over. + +"It procured me the advantage of making your acquaintance," he added, +and he looked at Emma as he said this. Then he put three francs on the +corner of the table, bowed negligently, and went out. + +He was soon on the other side of the river (this was his way back to La +Huchette), and Emma saw him in the meadow, walking under the poplars, +slackening his pace now and then as one who reflects. + +"She is very pretty," he said to himself; "she is very pretty, this +doctor's wife. Fine teeth, black eyes, a dainty foot, a figure like a +Parisienne's. Where the devil does she come from? Wherever did this fat +fellow pick her up?" + +Monsieur Rodolphe Boulanger was thirty-four; he was of brutal +temperament and intelligent perspicacity, having, moreover, had much to +do with women, and knowing them well. This one had seemed pretty to him; +so he was thinking about her and her husband. + +"I think he is very stupid. She is tired of him, no doubt. He has dirty +nails, and hasn't shaved for three days. While he is trotting after his +patients, she sits there botching socks. And she gets bored! She would +like to live in town and dance polkas every evening. Poor little woman! +She is gaping after love like a carp after water on a kitchen-table. +With three words of gallantry she'd adore one, I'm sure of it. She'd be +tender, charming! Yes; but how get rid of her afterwards?" + +Then the difficulties of love-making seen in the distance made him by +contrast think of his mistress. She was an actress at Rouen, whom he +kept; and when he had pondered over this image, with which, even in +remembrance, he was satiated-- + +"Ah! Madame Bovary," he thought, "is much prettier, especially fresher. +Virginie is decidedly beginning to grow fat. She is so finikin with her +pleasures; and, besides, she has a mania for prawns." + +The fields were empty, and around him Rodolphe heard only the regular +beating of the grass striking against his boots, with the cry of the +grasshopper hidden at a distance among the oats. He again saw Emma in +her room, dressed as he had seen her, and he undressed her. + +"Oh, I will have her," he cried, striking a blow with his stick at a +clod in front of him. And he at once began to consider the political +part of the enterprise. He asked himself-- + +"Where shall we meet? By what means? We shall always be having the brat +on our hands, and the servant, the neighbors, the husband, all sorts of +worries. Pshaw! one would lose too much time over it." + +Then he resumed, "She really has eyes that pierce one's heart like a +gimlet. And that pale complexion; I adore pale women!" + +When he reached the top of the Argueil hills he had made up his mind. +"It's only finding the opportunities. Well, I will call in now and then. +I'll send them venison, poultry; I'll have myself bled, if need be. We +shall become friends; I'll invite them to my place. By Jove!" added he, +"there's the agricultural show coming on. She'll be there. I shall see +her. We'll begin boldly, for that's the surest way." + + + + +VIII. + +A VILLAGE FESTIVAL. + + +At last it came, the famous agricultural show. On the morning of the +solemnity all the inhabitants at their doors were chatting over the +preparations. The pediment of the townhall had been hung with garlands +of ivy; a tent had been erected in a meadow for the banquet; and in the +middle of the Place, in front of the church, a kind of bombarde was to +announce the arrival of the prefect and the names of the successful +farmers who had obtained prizes. The National Guard of Buchy (there was +none at Yonville) had come to join the corps of firemen, of whom Binet +was captain. On that day he wore a collar even higher than usual; and, +tightly buttoned in his tunic, his figure was so stiff and motionless +that the whole vital portion of his person seemed to have descended into +his legs; which rose in a cadence of set steps with a single movement. +As there was some rivalry between the tax-collector and the colonel, +both, to show off their talents, drilled their men separately. One saw +the red epaulettes and the black breastplates pass and repass +alternately; there was no end to it, and it continually began again. +There had never been such a display of pomp. Several citizens had +washed down their houses the evening before; tricolored flags hung from +half-open windows; all the public-houses were full; and in the lovely +weather the starched caps, the golden crosses, and the colored +neckerchiefs seemed whiter than snow, shone in the sun, and relieved +with their motley colors the somber monotony of the frock-coats and blue +smocks. The neighboring farmers' wives, when they got off their horses, +pulled out a long pin that fastened round them their skirts, turned up +for fear of mud; the husbands, on the contrary, in order to save their +hats, kept their handkerchiefs round them, holding one corner between +their teeth. + +The crowd came into the main street from both ends of the village. +People poured in from the lanes, the alleys, the houses; and from time +to time one heard knockers banging against doors closing behind women +with their gloves, who were going out to see the fête. What was most +admired were two long lamp-stands covered with lanterns, that flanked a +platform on which the authorities were to sit. Besides this there were +against the four columns of the townhall four kinds of poles, each +bearing a small standard of greenish cloth, embellished with +inscriptions in gold letters. On one was written, "To Commerce;" on the +other, "To Agriculture;" on the third, "To Industry;" and on the fourth, +"To the Fine Arts." + +But the jubilation that brightened all faces seemed to darken that of +Madame Lefrançois, the innkeeper. Standing on her kitchen-steps she +muttered to herself, "What rubbish! what rubbish! With their canvas +booth! Do they think the prefect will be glad to dine down there under a +tent like a gipsy? They call all this fussing doing good to the place! +Then it wasn't worth while sending to Neufchâtel for the keeper of a +cookshop! And for whom? For cowherds! tatterdemalions!" + +The chemist was passing. He had on a frock-coat, nankeen trousers, +beaver shoes, and, for a wonder, a hat with a low crown. + +"Your servant! Excuse me, I am in a hurry." And as the fat widow asked +where he was going-- + +"It seems odd to you, doesn't it, to see me, who am always more cooped +up in my laboratory than the man's rat in his cheese, taking a holiday?" + +"What cheese?" asked the landlady. + +"Oh, nothing! nothing!" Homais continued. "I merely wished to convey to +you, Madame Lefrançois, that I usually live at home like a recluse. +To-day, however, considering the circumstances, it is necessary--" + +"Oh, you're going down there!" she said contemptuously. + +"Yes, I am going," replied the chemist, astonished. "Am I not a member +of the consulting commission?" + +Mère Lefrançois looked at him for a few moments, and ended by saying +with a smile: + +"That's another pair of shoes! But what does agriculture matter to you? +Do you understand anything about it?" + +"Certainly I understand it, since I am a druggist,--that is to say, a +chemist. And the object of chemistry, Madame Lefrançois, being the +knowledge of the reciprocal and molecular action of all natural bodies, +it follows that agriculture is comprised within its domain. And, in +fact, the composition of the manure, the fermentation of liquids, the +analyses of gases, and the influence of miasmata, what, I ask you, is +all this, if it isn't chemistry, pure and simple?" + +The landlady did not answer. Homais went on: + +"Do you think that to be an agriculturist it is necessary to have tilled +the earth or fattened fowls oneself? It is necessary rather to know the +composition of the substances in question--the geological strata, the +atmospheric actions, the quality of the soil, the minerals, the waters, +the density of the different bodies, their capillarity, and what not. +And one must be master of all the principles of hygiene in order to +direct, criticise the construction of buildings, the feeding of animals, +the diet of the domestics. And, moreover, Madame Lefrançois, one must +know botany, be able to distinguish between plants, you understand, +which are the wholesome and those that are deleterious, which are +unproductive and which nutritive, if it is well to pull them up here and +re-sow them there, to propagate some, destroy others; in brief, one must +keep pace with science by means of pamphlets and public papers, be +always on the alert to find out improvements." + +The landlady never took her eyes off the "Café Français," and the +chemist went on: + +"Would to God our agriculturists were chemists, or that at least they +would pay more attention to the counsels of science. Thus, lately I +myself wrote a considerable tract, a memoir of more than seventy-two +pages, entitled, 'Cider, its Manufacture and its Effects, together with +some New Reflections on this Subject,' that I sent to the Agricultural +Society of Rouen, and which even procured me the honor of being received +among its members--Section, Agriculture; Class, Pomological. Well, if +my work had been given to the public--" But the druggist stopped, Madame +Lefrançois seemed so preoccupied. + +"Just look at them!" she said. "It's past comprehension! Such a cookshop +as that!" And with a shrug of the shoulders that stretched out over her +breast the stitches of her knitted bodice, she pointed with both hands +at her rival's inn, whence songs were heard issuing. "Well, it won't +last long," she added; "it'll be over before a week." + +Homais drew back with stupefaction. She came down three steps and +whispered in his ear: + +"What! you didn't know it? There'll be an execution in next week. It's +Lheureux who is selling him up; he has killed him with bills." + +"What a terrible catastrophe!" cried the chemist, who always found +expressions in harmony with all imaginable circumstances. + +Then the landlady began telling him this story, that she had heard from +Théodore, Monsieur Guillaumin's servant, and although she detested +Telher, she blamed Lheureux. He was "a wheedler, a sneak." + +"There!" she said. "Look at him! he is in the market; he is bowing to +Madame Bovary, who's got on a green bonnet. Why, she's taking Monsieur +Boulanger's arm." + +"Madame Bovary!" exclaimed Homais. "I must go at once and pay her my +respects. Perhaps she'd be very glad to have a seat in the enclosure +under the peristyle." And, without heeding Madame Lefrançois, who was +calling him back to tell him more about it, the druggist walked off +rapidly with a smile on his lips, with straight knees, bowing +exuberantly right and left, and taking up much room with the large +tails of his frock-coat that fluttered behind him in the wind. + +Rodolphe, having caught sight of him from afar, hurried on, but Madame +Bovary lost her breath; so he walked more slowly, and, smiling at her, +said in a rough tone: + +"It's only to get away from that fat fellow, you know, the druggist." +She pressed his elbow. + +"What's the meaning of that?" he asked himself. And he looked at her out +of the corner of his eyes. + +Her profile was so calm that one could guess nothing from it. It stood +out in the light from the oval of her bonnet, with pale ribbons on it +like the leaves of reeds. Her eyes with their long curved lashes looked +straight before her, and though wide open, they seemed slightly puckered +by the cheekbones, because of the blood pulsing gently under the +delicate skin. A pink line ran along the partition between her nostrils. +Her head leaned towards her shoulder, and the pearly tips of her white +teeth were seen between her lips. + +"Is she making fun of me?" thought Rodolphe. + +Emma's gesture, however, had only been meant for a warning; for Monsieur +Lheureux was accompanying them, and spoke now and again as if to enter +into the conversation. + +"What a superb day! Everybody is out! The wind is east!" + +And neither Madame Bovary nor Rodolphe answered him, while at the +slightest movement made by them he drew near, saying, "I beg your +pardon!" and raised his hat. + +When they reached the farrier's house, instead of following the road up +to the fence, Rodolphe suddenly turned down a path, drawing with him +Madame Bovary. He called out: + +"Good evening, Monsieur Lheureux! See you again presently." + +"How you got rid of him!" she said, laughing. + +"Why," he went on, "allow oneself to be intruded upon by others? And as +to-day I have the happiness of being with you----" + +Emma blushed. He did not finish his sentence. Then he talked of the fine +weather and of the pleasure of walking on the grass. A few daisies had +sprung up again. + +"Here are some pretty Easter daisies," he said, "and enough of them to +furnish oracles to all the amorous maids in the place." He added, "Shall +I pick some? What do you think?" + +"Are you in love?" she asked, coughing a little. + +"H'm, h'm! who knows?" answered Rodolphe. + +The meadow began to fill, and the housewives, hustled one with their +great umbrellas, their baskets, and their babies. One had often to get +out of the way of a long file of country folk, servant-maids with blue +stockings, flat shoes, and silver rings, who smelled of milk when one +passed close to them. They walked along holding one another by the hand, +and thus they spread over the whole field from the row of open trees to +the banquet tent. But this was the examination time, and the farmers one +after the other entered a kind of enclosure formed by a long cord +supported on sticks. + +The beasts were there, their noses toward the cord, and making a +confused line with their unequal rumps. Drowsy pigs were burrowing in +the earth with their snouts, calves were bleating, lambs baaing; the +cows, on knees folded in, were stretching their bellies on the grass, +slowly chewing the cud, and blinking their heavy eyelids at the gnats +that buzzed round them. Ploughmen with bare arms were holding by the +halter prancing stallions that neighed with dilated nostrils, looking +toward the mares. These stood quietly, stretching out their heads and +flowing manes, while their foals rested in their shadow, or now and then +came and sucked them. And above the long undulation of these crowded +animals one saw some white mane rising in the wind like a wave, or some +sharp horns sticking out, and the heads of men running about. Apart, +outside the enclosure, a hundred paces off, was a large black bull, +muzzled, with an iron ring in its nostrils, who moved no more than if he +had been in bronze. A child in rags was holding him by a rope. + +Between the two lines the committee-men were walking with heavy steps, +examining each animal, then consulting one another in a low voice. One +who seemed of more importance now and then took notes in a book as he +walked along. This was the president of the jury, Monsieur Derozerays de +la Panville. As soon as he recognized Rodolphe he came forward quickly, +and smiling amiably, said: + +"What! Monsieur Boulanger, you are deserting us?" + +Rodolphe protested that he was just coming. But when the president had +disappeared: + +"_Ma foi!_" said he, "I shall not go. Your company is better than his." + +And while poking fun at the show, Rodolphe, to move about more easily, +showed the gendarme his blue card, and even stopped now and then in +front of some fine beast which Madame Bovary did not at all admire. He +noticed this and began jeering at the Yonville ladies and their dresses; +then he apologized for the negligence of his own. He had that +incongruity of common and elegant in which the habitually vulgar think +they see the revelation of an eccentric existence, of the perturbations +of sentiment, the tyrannies of art, and always a certain contempt for +social conventions, that seduces or exasperates them. Thus his cambric +shirt with plaited cuffs was blown out by the wind in the opening of his +waistcoat of gray ticking, and his broad-striped trousers disclosed at +the ankle nankeen boots with patent leather gaiters. These were so +polished that they reflected the grass. He trampled on horses' dung with +them, one hand in the pocket of his jacket and his straw hat on one +side. + +"Besides," added he, "when one lives in the country----" + +"It's waste of time," said Emma. + +"That is true," replied Rodolphe. "To think that not one of these people +is capable of understanding even the cut of a coat!" + +Then they talked about provincial mediocrity, of the lives it crushed, +the illusions lost there. + +"And I too," said Rodolphe, "am drifting into depression." + +"You!" she said in astonishment; "I thought you very light-hearted." + +"Ah! yes. I seem so, because in the midst of the world I know how to +wear the mask of a scoffer upon my face; and yet, how many a time at the +sight of a cemetery by moonlight have I not asked myself whether it were +not better to join those sleeping there!" + +"Oh! and your friends?" she said. "You do not think of them." + +"My friends! What friends? Have I any? Who cares for me?" And he +accompanied the last words with a kind of whistling of the lips. + +But they were obliged to separate from each other because of a great +pile of chairs that a man was carrying behind them. He was so overladen +with them that one could only see the tips of his wooden shoes and the +ends of his two outstretched arms. It was Lestiboudois, the gravedigger, +who was carrying the church chairs about among the people. Alive to all +that concerned his interests, he had hit upon this means of turning the +show to account; and his idea was succeeding, for he no longer knew +which way to turn. In fact, the villagers, who were hot, quarreled for +these seats, whose straw smelled of incense, and they lent against the +thick backs, stained with the wax of candles, with a certain veneration. + +Madame Bovary again took Rodolphe's arm; he went on as if speaking to +himself: + +"Yes, I have missed so many things. Always alone! Ah! if I had some aim +in life, if I had met some love, if I had found some one! Oh, how I +would have spent all the energy of which I am capable, surmounted +everything, overcome everything!" + +"Yet it seems to me," said Emma, "that you are not to be pitied." + +"Ah! you think so?" said Rodolphe. + +"For, after all," she went on, "you are free----" she hesitated, +"rich----" + +"Do not mock me," he replied. + +And she protested that she was not mocking him, when the report of a +cannon resounded. Immediately all began hustling one another pell-mell +toward the village. + +It was a false alarm. The prefect seemed not to be coming, and the +members of the jury felt much embarrassed, not knowing if they ought to +begin the meeting or still wait. + +At last at the end of the Place a large hired landau appeared, drawn by +two thin horses, whom a coachman in a white hat was whipping lustily. +Binet had only just time to shout, "Present arms!" and the colonel to +imitate him. All ran toward the enclosure; every one pushed forward. A +few even forgot their collars; but the equipage of the prefect seemed to +anticipate the crowd, and the two yoked jades, trapesing in their +harness, came up at a little trot in front of the peristyle of the town +hall at the very moment when the National Guard and firemen deployed, +beating drums and marking time. + +"Present!" shouted Binet. + +"Halt!" shouted the colonel. "Left about, march." + +And after presenting arms, during which the clang of the band, letting +loose, rang out like a brass kettle rolling downstairs, all the guns +were lowered. Then were seen stepping down from the carriage a gentleman +in a short coat with silver braiding, with bald brow, and wearing a tuft +of hair at the back of his head, of a sallow complexion and the most +benign appearance. His eyes, very large and covered by heavy lids, were +half-closed to look at the crowd, while at the same time he raised his +sharp nose, and forced a smile upon his sunken mouth. He recognized the +mayor by his scarf, and explained to him that the prefect was not able +to come. He himself was a councilor at the prefecture; then he added a +few apologies. Monsieur Tuvache answered them with compliments; the +other confessed himself nervous; and they remained thus, face to face, +their foreheads almost touching, with the members of the jury all round, +the municipal council, the notable personages, the National Guard and +the crowd. The councilor pressing his little cocked hat to his breast +repeated his bows, while Tuvache, bent like a bow, also smiled, +stammered, tried to say something, protested his devotion to the +monarchy and the honor that was being done to Yonville. + +Hippolyte, the groom from the inn, took the head of the horses from the +coachman, and, limping along with his club-foot, led them to the door of +the "Lion d'Or," where a number of peasants collected to look at the +carriage. The drum beat, the howitzer thundered, and the gentlemen one +by one mounted the platform, where they sat down in red utrecht velvet +armchairs that had been lent by Madame Tuvache. + +All these people looked alike. Their fair flabby faces, somewhat tanned +by the sun, were the color of sweet cider, and their puffy whiskers +emerged from stiff collars, kept up by white cravats with broad bows. +All the waistcoats were of velvet, double-breasted; all the watches had, +at the end of a long ribbon, an oval cornelian seal; every one rested +his two hands on his thighs, carefully stretching the stride of his +trousers, whose unsponged glossy cloth shone more brilliantly than the +leather of his heavy boots. + +The ladies of the company stood at the back under the vestibule between +the pillars, while the common herd was opposite, standing up or sitting +on chairs. As a matter of fact, Lestiboudois had brought thither all +those that he had moved from the field, and he even kept running back +every minute to fetch others from the church. He caused such confusion +with this piece of business that one had great difficulty in getting to +the small steps of the platform. + +"I think," said Monsieur Lheureux to the chemist, who was passing to his +place, "that they ought to have put up two Venetian masts with something +rather severe and rich for ornaments; it would have been a very pretty +effect." + +"To be sure," replied Homais; "but what can you expect? The mayor took +everything on his own shoulders. He hasn't much taste. Poor Tuvache! and +he is even completely destitute of what is called the genius of art." + +Rodolphe, meanwhile, with Madame Bovary, had gone up to the first floor +of the townhall, to the "council-room," and as it was empty, he declared +that they could enjoy the sight there more comfortably. He fetched three +stools from the round table under the bust of the monarch, and having +carried them to one of the windows, they sat down by each other. + +There was commotion on the platform, long whisperings, much parleying. +At last the councilor got up. They knew now that his name was Lieuvain, +and in the crowd the name was passed from one to the other. After he had +collated a few pages, and bent over them to see better, he began: + +"Gentlemen! May I be permitted first of all (before addressing you on +the object of our meeting to-day, and this sentiment, will, I am sure, +be shared by you all), may I be permitted, I say, to pay a tribute to +the higher administration, to the government, to the monarch, gentlemen, +our sovereign, to that beloved king, to whom no branch of public or +private prosperity is a matter of indifference, and who directs with a +hand at once so firm and wise the chariot of the state amid the +incessant perils of a stormy sea, knowing, moreover, how to make peace +respected as well as war, industry, commerce, agriculture, and the fine +arts." + +"I ought," said Rodolphe, "to get back a little further." + +"Why?" said Emma. + +But at this moment the voice of the councilor rose to an extraordinary +pitch. He declaimed: + +"This is no longer the time, gentlemen, when civil discord ensanguined +our public places, when the landlord, the business-man, the working-man +himself, falling asleep at night, lying down to peaceful sleep, trembled +lest he should be awakened suddenly by the noise of incendiary tocsins, +when the most subversive doctrines audaciously sapped foundations." + +"Well, some one down there might see me," Rodolphe resumed, "then I +should have to invent excuses for a fortnight; and with my bad +reputation----" + +"Oh, you are slandering yourself," said Emma. + +"No! It is dreadful, I assure you." + +"But, gentlemen," continued the councilor, "if, banishing from my memory +the remembrance of these sad pictures, I carry my eyes back to the +actual situation of our dear country, what do I see there? Everywhere +commerce and the arts are flourishing; everywhere new means of +communication, like so many new arteries in the body of the state, +establish within it new relations. Our great industrial centers have +recovered all their activity; religion, more consolidated, smiles in all +hearts; our ports are full, confidence is born again, and France +breathes once more!" + +"Besides," added Rodolphe, "perhaps from the world's point of view they +are right." + +"How so?" she asked. + +"What!" said he. "Do you not know that there are souls constantly +tormented? They need by turns to dream and to act, the purest passions +and the most turbulent joys, and thus they fling themselves into all +sorts of fantasies, of follies." + +Then she looked at him as one looks at a traveler who has voyaged over +strange lands, and went on: + +"We have not even this distraction, we poor women!" + +"A sad distraction, for happiness isn't found in it." + +"But is it ever found?" she asked. + +"Yes; one day it comes," he answered. + +"And this is what you have understood," said the councilor. "You +farmers, agricultural laborers! you pacific pioneers of a work that +belongs wholly to civilization! you men of progress and morality, you +have understood, I say, that political storms are even more redoubtable +than atmospheric disturbances!" + +"It comes one day," repeated Rodolphe, "one day suddenly, and when one +is despairing of it. Then the horizon expands; it is as if a voice +cried, 'It is here!' You feel the need of confiding the whole of your +life, of giving everything, sacrificing everything to this being. There +is no need for explanations; they understand one another. They have seen +each other in dreams!" He looked at her. "In fine, here it is, this +treasure so sought after, here before you. It glitters, it flashes; yet +one still doubts, one does not believe it; one remains dazzled, as if +one went out from darkness into light!" + +And as he ended Rodolphe suited the action to the word. He passed his +hand over his face, like a man seized with giddiness. Then he let it +fall on Emma's. She took hers away. + +"And who would be surprised at it, gentlemen? He only who was so blind, +so plunged (I do not fear to say it), so plunged in the prejudices of +another age as still to misunderstand the spirit of agricultural +populations. Where, indeed, is to be found more patriotism than in the +country, greater devotion to the public welfare, more intelligence, in a +word? And, gentlemen, I do not mean that superficial intelligence, vain +ornament of idle minds, but rather that profound and balanced +intelligence that applies itself above all else to useful objects, thus +contributing to the good of all, to the common amelioration and to the +support of the state, born of respect for law and the practice of +duty----" + +"Ah! again!" said Rodolphe. "Always 'duty.' I am sick of the word. They +are a lot of old blockheads in flannel vests and of old women with +foot-warmers and rosaries who constantly drone into our ears 'Duty, +duty!' Ah! by Jove! one's duty is to feel what is great, cherish the +beautiful, and not accept all the conventions of society with the +ignominy that it imposes upon us." + +"Yet--yet----" objected Madame Bovary. + +"No, no! Why cry out against the passions? Are they not the one +beautiful thing on the earth, the source of heroism, of enthusiasm, of +poetry, music, the arts, of everything, in a word?" + +"But one must," said Emma, "to some extent bow to the opinion of the +world and accept its moral code." + +"Ah! but there are two," he replied. "The small, the conventional, that +of men, that which constantly changes, that brays out so loudly, that +makes such a commotion here below, of the earth earthy, like the mass of +imbeciles you see down there. But the other, the eternal, that is about +us and above, like the landscape that surrounds us, and the blue heavens +that give us light." + +Monsieur Lieuvain had just wiped his mouth with a pocket-handkerchief. +He continued: + +"And what should I do here, gentlemen, pointing out to you the uses of +agriculture? Who supplies our wants? Who provides our means of +subsistence? Is it not the agriculturist? The agriculturist, gentlemen, +who, sowing with laborious hand the fertile furrows of the country, +brings forth the corn, which, being ground, is made into a powder by +means of ingenious machinery, comes out thence under the name of flour, +and from there, transported to our cities, is soon delivered at the +baker's, who makes it into food for poor and rich alike. Again, is it +not the agriculturist who fattens, for our clothes, his abundant flocks +in the pastures? For how should we clothe ourselves, how nourish +ourselves, without the agriculturist? And, gentlemen, is it even +necessary to go so far for examples? Who has not frequently reflected +on all the momentous things that we get out of that modest animal, the +ornament of poultry-yards, that provides us at once with a soft pillow +for our bed, with succulent flesh for our tables, and eggs? But I should +never end if I were to enumerate one after the other all the different +products which the earth, well cultivated, like a generous mother, +lavishes upon her children. Here it is the vine, elsewhere the +apple-tree for cider, there colza, farther on cheeses and flax. +Gentlemen, let us not forget flax, which has made such great strides of +late years, and to which I will more particularly call your attention." + +He had no need to call it, for all the mouths of the multitude were wide +open, as if to drink in his words. Tuvache by his side listened to him +with starting eyes. Monsieur Derozerays from time to time softly closed +his eyelids, and farther on the chemist, with his son Napoléon between +his knees, put his hand behind his ear in order not to lose a syllable. +The chins of the other members of the jury went slowly up and down in +their waistcoats in sign of approval. The firemen at the foot of the +platform rested on their bayonets; and Binet, motionless, stood with +out-turned elbows, the point of his sabre in the air. Perhaps he could +hear, but certainly he could see nothing, because of the visor of his +helmet, that fell down on his nose. His lieutenant, the youngest son of +Monsieur Tuvache, had a bigger one, for his was enormous, and shook on +his head, and from it an end of his cotton scarf peeped out. He smiled +beneath it with a perfectly infantine sweetness, and his pale little +face, whence drops were running, wore an expression of enjoyment and +sleepiness. + +The square as far as the houses was crowded with people. One saw folk +leaning on their elbows at all the windows, others standing at doors, +and Justin, in front of the chemist's shop, seemed quite transfixed by +the sight of what he was looking at. In spite of the silence Monsieur +Lieuvain's voice was lost in the air. It reached you in fragments of +phrases, and interrupted here and there by the creaking of chairs in the +crowd; then you suddenly heard the long bellowing of an ox, or else the +bleating of the lambs, who answered one another at street corners. In +fact, the cowherds and shepherds had driven their beasts thus far, and +these lowed from time to time, while with their tongues they tore down +some scrap of foliage that hung above their mouths. + +Rodolphe had drawn nearer to Emma, and said to her in a low voice, +speaking rapidly: + +"Does not this conspiracy of the world revolt you? Is there a single +sentiment it does not condemn? The noblest instincts, the purest +sympathies are persecuted, slandered; and if at length two poor souls do +meet, all is so organized that they cannot blend together. Yet they will +make the attempt; they will flutter their wings; they will call upon +each other. Oh! no matter. Sooner or later, in six months, ten years, +they will come together, will love; for fate has decreed it, and they +are born one for the other." + +His arms were folded across his knees, and thus lifting his face toward +Emma, close by her, he looked fixedly at her. She noticed in his eyes +small golden lines radiating from black pupils; she even smelled the +perfume of the pomade that made his hair glossy. Then a faintness came +over her; she recalled the Viscount who had waltzed with her at +Vaubyessard, and his beard exhaled like this hair an odor of vanilla +and citron, and mechanically she half-closed her eyes the better to +breathe it in. But in making this movement, as she leaned back in her +chair, she saw in the distance, right on the line of the horizon, the +old diligence the "Hirondelle," that was slowly descending the hill of +Leux, dragging after it a long trail of dust. It was in this yellow +carriage that Léon had so often come back to her, and by this route down +there that he had gone for ever. She fancied she saw him opposite at his +window; then all grew confused; clouds gathered; it seemed to her that +she was again turning in the waltz under the light of the lusters on the +arm of the Viscount, and that Léon was not far away, that he was coming; +and yet all the time she was conscious of the scent of Rodolphe's head +by her side. This sweetness of sensation pierced through her old +desires, and these, like grains of sand under a gust of wind, eddied to +and fro in the subtle breath of the perfume which suffused her soul. She +opened wide her nostrils several times to drink in the freshness of the +ivy round the capitals. She took off her gloves, she wiped her hands, +then fanned her face with her handkerchief, while athwart the throbbing +of her temples she heard the murmur of the crowd and the voice of the +councilor intoning his phrases. He said: + +"Continue, persevere; listen neither to the suggestions of routine, nor +to the over-hasty councils of a rash empiricism. Apply yourselves, above +all, to the amelioration of the soil, to good manures, to the +development of the equine, bovine, ovine, and porcine races. Let these +shows be to you pacific arenas, where the victor in leaving it will hold +forth a hand to the vanquished, and will fraternize with him in the +hope of better success. And you, aged servants, humble domestics, whose +hard labor no Government up to this day has taken into consideration, +come hither to receive the reward of your silent virtues, and be assured +that the state henceforward has its eye upon you; that it encourages +you, protects you; that it will accede to your just demands, and +alleviate as much as in it lies the burden of your painful sacrifices." + +Monsieur Lieuvain then sat down; Monsieur Derozerays got up, beginning +another speech. His was not perhaps so florid as that of the councilor, +but it recommended itself by a more direct style, that is to say, by +more special knowledge and more elevated considerations. Thus the praise +of the Government took up less space in it; religion and agriculture +more. He showed in it the relations of these two, and how they had +always contributed to civilization. Rodolphe with Madame Bovary was +talking dreams, presentiments, magnetism. Going back to the cradle of +society, the orator painted those fierce times when men lived on acorns +in the heart of woods. Then they had left off the skins of beasts, had +put on cloth, tilled the soil, planted the vine. Was this a good, and in +this discovery was there not more of injury than of gain? Monsieur +Derozerays set himself this problem. From magnetism little by little +Rodolphe had come to affinities, and while the president was citing +Cincinnatus and his plough, Diocletian planting his cabbages, and the +emperors of China inaugurating the year by the sowing of seed, the young +man was explaining to the young woman that these irresistible +attractions find their cause in some previous state of existence. + +"Thus we," he said, "why did we come to know one another? What chance +willed it? It was because across the infinite, like two streams that +flow but to unite, our special bents of mind had driven us toward each +other." + +And he seized her hand; she did not withdraw it. + +"For good farming generally!" cried the president. + +"Just now, for example, when I went to your house." + +"To Monsieur Bizat of Quincampoix." + +"Did I know I should accompany you?" + +"Seventy francs." + +"A hundred times I wished to go; and I followed you--I remained." + +"Manures!" + +"And I shall remain to-night, to-morrow, all other days, all my life!" + +"To Monsieur Caron of Argueil, a gold medal!" + +"For I have never in the society of any other person found so complete a +charm." + +"To Monsieur Bain of Givry-Saint-Martin." + +"And I shall carry away with me the remembrance of you." + +"For a merino ram!" + +"But you will forget me; I shall pass away like a shadow." + +"To Monsieur Belot of Nôtre-Dame." + +"Oh, no! I shall be something in your thought, in your life, shall I +not?" + +"Porcine race; prizes--equal, to Messrs. Lehérissé and Cullembourg, +sixty francs!" + +Rodolphe was pressing her hand, and he felt it all warm and quivering +like a captive dove that tries to fly away; but, whether she was trying +to take it away or whether she was answering his pressure, she made a +movement with her fingers. He exclaimed-- + +"Oh, I thank you! You do not repulse me! You are good! You understand +that I am yours! Let me look at you; let me contemplate you!" + +A gust of wind that blew in at the window ruffled the cloth on the +table, and in the square below all the great caps of the peasant women +were uplifted by it like the wings of white butterflies fluttering. + +"Use of oil-cakes," continued the president. He was hurrying on: +"Flemish manure--flax-growing--drainage--long leases--domestic service." + +Rodolphe was no longer speaking. They looked at one another. A supreme +desire made their dry lips tremble, and softly, without an effort, their +fingers intertwined. + +"Catherine Nicaise Elizabeth Leroux, of Sassetot-la-Guerrière, for +fifty-four years of service at the same farm, a silver medal--value, +twenty-five francs!" + +"Where is Catherine Leroux?" repeated the councilor. + +She did not present herself, and one could hear voices whispering: + +"Go up!" + +"Don't be afraid!" + +"Oh, how stupid she is!" + +"Well, is she there?" cried Tuvache. + +"Yes; here she is." + +"Then let her come up!" + +Then there came forward on the platform a little old woman with timid +bearing, who seemed to shrink within her poor clothes. On her feet she +wore heavy wooden clogs, and from her hips hung a large blue apron. Her +pale face framed in a borderless cap was more wrinkled than a withered +russet apple, and from the sleeves of her red jacket hung down two large +hands with knotty joints. The dust of barns, the potash of washings, and +the grease of wools had so incrusted, roughened, hardened these, that +they seemed dirty, although they had been rinsed in clear water; and by +dint of long service they remained half open, as if to bear humble +witness for themselves of so much suffering endured. Something of +monastic rigidity dignified her face. Nothing of sadness or of emotion +weakened that pale look. In her constant living with animals she had +caught their dumbness and their calm. It was the first time that she +found herself in the midst of so large a company, and inwardly scared by +the flags, the drums, the gentlemen in frock-coats, and the order of the +councilor, she stood motionless, not knowing whether to advance or run +away, nor why the crowd was pushing her and the jury were smiling at +her. Thus stood before these radiant bourgeois this half-century of +servitude. + +"Approach, venerable Catherine Nicaise Elizabeth Leroux!" said the +councilor, who had taken the list of prize-winners from the president; +and, looking at the piece of paper and the old woman by turns, he +repeated in a fatherly tone: + +"Approach! approach!" + +"Are you deaf?" said Tuvache, fidgeting in his armchair; and he began +shouting in her ear, "Fifty-four years of service. A silver medal! +Twenty-five francs! For you!" + +Then, when she had her medal, she looked at it, and a smile of beatitude +spread over her face; and as she walked away they could hear her +muttering: + +"I'll give it to our curé up home, to say some masses for me!" + +"What fanaticism!" exclaimed the chemist, leaning across to the notary. + +The meeting was over, the crowd dispersed, and now that the speeches had +been read, each one fell back into his place again, and everything into +the old grooves; the masters bullied the servants, and these struck the +animals, indolent victors, going back to the stalls, a green crown on +their horns. + +The National Guards, however, had gone up to the first floor of the +townhall with buns spitted on their bayonets, and the drummer of the +battalion carried a basket with bottles. Madame Bovary took Rodolphe's +arm; he saw her home; they separated at her door; then he walked about +alone in the meadow while he waited for the time of the banquet. + +The feast was long, noisy, ill served; the guests were so crowded that +they could hardly move their elbows; and the narrow planks used for +forms almost broke down under their weight. They ate hugely. Each one +stuffed himself on his own account. Sweat stood on every brow, and a +whitish steam, like the vapor of a stream on an autumn morning, floated +above the table between the hanging lamps. Rodolphe, leaning against the +calico of the tent, was thinking so earnestly of Emma that he heard +nothing. Behind him on the grass the servants were piling up the dirty +plates; his neighbors were talking; he did not answer them; they filled +his glass, and there was silence in his thoughts in spite of the growing +noise. He was dreaming of what she had said, of the line of her lips; +her face, as in a magic mirror, shone on the plates of the shakos, the +folds of her gown fell along the walls, and days of love unrolled to +all infinity before him in the vistas of the future. + +He saw her again in the evening during the fireworks, but she was with +her husband. Madame Homais, and the druggist, who was worrying about the +danger of stray rockets, and every moment he left the company to go and +give some advice to Binet. + +The pyrotechnic pieces sent to Monsieur Tuvache had, through an excess +of caution, been shut up in his cellar, and so the damp powder would not +light, and the principal set piece, that was to represent a dragon +biting his tail, failed completely. Now and then a meager Roman-candle +went off; then the gaping crowd sent up a shout that mingled with the +cry of the women, whose waists were being squeezed in the darkness. Emma +silently nestled gently against Charles's shoulder; then, raising her +chin, she watched the luminous rays of the rockets against the dark sky. +Rodolphe gazed at her in the light of the burning lanterns. + +They went out one by one. The stars shone out. A few drops of rain began +to fall. She knotted her fichu round her bare head. + +At this moment the councilor's carriage came out from the inn. His +coachman, who was drunk, suddenly dozed off, and one could see from the +distance, above the hood, between the two lanterns, the mass of his +body, that swayed from right to left with the giving of the traces. + +"Truly," said the chemist, "one ought to proceed most rigorously against +drunkenness! I should like to see written up weekly at the door of the +townhall on a board _ad hoc_ the names of all those who during the week +got intoxicated on alcohol. Besides, with regard to statistics, one +would thus have, as it were, public records that one could refer to in +case of need. But excuse me!" + +And he once more ran off to the captain. The latter was going back to +see his lathe again. + +"Perhaps you would not do ill," Homais said to him, "to send one of your +men, or to go yourself----" + +"Leave me alone!" answered the tax-collector. "It's all right!" + +"Do not be uneasy," said the chemist, when he returned to his friends. +"Monsieur Binet has assured me that all precautions have been taken. No +sparks have fallen; the pumps are full. Let us go to rest." + +"_Ma foi!_ I want it," said Madame Homais, yawning at large. "But never +mind; we've had a beautiful day for our fête." + +Rodolphe repeated in a low voice, and with a tender look, "Oh, yes! very +beautiful." + +And having bowed to one another, they separated. + +Two days later, in the "Fanal de Rouen," there was a long article on the +show. Homais had composed it with _verve_ the very next morning. + +"Why these festoons, these flowers, these garlands? Whither hurries this +crowd like the waves of a furious sea under the torrents of a tropical +sun pouring its heat upon our heads?" + +Then he spoke of the condition of the peasants. Certainly the Government +was doing much, but not enough. "Courage!" he cried to it; "a thousand +reforms are indispensable; let us accomplish them!" Then touching on the +entry of the councilor, he did not forget "the martial air of our +militia," nor "our most merry village maidens," nor the "bald-headed +old men like patriarchs who were there, and of whom some, the remnants +of our immortal phalanxes, still felt their hearts beat at the manly +sound of the drums." He cited himself among the first of the members of +the jury, and he even called attention in a note to the fact that +Monsieur Homais, chemist, had sent a memoir on cider to the agricultural +society. When he came to the distribution of the prizes, he painted the +joy of the prize-winners in dithyrambic strophes. "The father embraced +the son, the brother the brother, the husband his consort. More than one +showed his humble medal with pride; and no doubt when he got home to his +good housewife, he hung it up weeping on the modest walls of his cot. + +"About six o'clock a banquet prepared in the meadow of Monsieur Leigeard +brought together the principal personages of the fête. The greatest +cordiality reigned here. Divers toasts were proposed. Monsieur Lieuvain, +the King; Monsieur Tuvache, the Prefect; Monsieur Derozerays, +Agriculture; Monsieur Homais, Industry and the Fine Arts, those twin +sisters; Monsieur Leplichey, Progress. In the evening some brilliant +fireworks on a sudden illumined the air. One would have called it a +veritable kaleidoscope, a real operatic scene; and for a moment our +little locality might have thought itself transported into the midst of +a dream of the 'Thousand and One Nights.' + +"Let us state that no untoward event disturbed this family meeting." And +he added: "Only the absence of the clergy was remarked. No doubt the +priests understand progress in another fashion. Just as you please, +messieurs the followers of Loyola!" + + + + +IX. + +A WOODLAND IDYLL. + + +Six weeks passed. Rodolphe did not come again. At last one evening he +appeared. + +The day after the show he had said to himself: + +"We mustn't go back too soon; that would be a mistake." + +And at the end of a week he had gone off hunting. After the hunting he +had thought he was too late, and then he reasoned thus: + +"If from the first day she loved me, she must, from impatience to see me +again, love me more. Let's go on with it!" + +And he knew that his calculation had been right when, on entering the +room, he saw Emma turn pale. She was alone. The day was drawing in. The +small muslin curtain along the windows deepened the twilight, and the +gilding of the barometer, on which the rays of the sun fell, shone in +the looking-glass between the meshes of the coral. + +Rodolphe remained standing, and Emma hardly answered his first +conventional phrases. + +"I," he said, "have been busy. I have been ill." + +"Seriously?" she cried. + +"Well," said Rodolphe, sitting down at her side on a footstool, "no; it +was because I did not want to come back." + +"Why?" + +"Can you not guess?" + +He looked at her again, but so hard that she lowered her head, blushing. +He went on: + +"Emma!" + +"Sir," she said, drawing back a little. + +"Ah! you see," replied he in a melancholy voice, "that I was right not +to come back; for this name, this name that fills my whole soul, and +that escaped me, you forbid me to use! Madame Bovary! why all the world +calls you thus! Besides it is not your name; it is the name of another!" +he repeated, "of another!" And he hid his face in his hands. "Yes, I +think of you constantly. The memory of you drives me to despair. Ah! +forgive me! I will leave you! Farewell! I will go far away, so far that +you will never hear of me again; and yet--to-day--I know not what force +impelled me toward you. For one does not struggle against Heaven; one +cannot resist the smile of angels; one is carried away by that which is +beautiful, charming, adorable." + +It was the first time that Emma had heard such words spoken to herself, +and her pride, like one who reposes bathed in warmth, expanded softly +and fully at this glowing language. + +"But if I did not come," he continued, "if I could not see you, at least +I have gazed long on all that surrounds you. At night--every night--I +arose; I came hither; I watched your house, its roof glimmering in the +moonlight, the trees in the garden before your window, and the little +lamp, a gleam shining through the window-panes in the darkness. Ah! you +never knew that there, so near you, so far from you, was a poor wretch!" + +She turned toward him with a sob. + +"Oh, you are good!" she said. + +"No, I love you, that is all! You do not doubt that! Tell me--one +word--only one word!" + +And Rodolphe imperceptibly glided from the footstool to the floor; but a +sound of wooden shoes was heard in the kitchen, and, he noticed the door +of the room was not closed. + +"How kind it would be of you," he went on, rising, "if you would humor a +whim of mine." It was to go over her house; he wanted to know it; and +Madame Bovary seeing no objection to this, they both rose, when Charles +came in. + +"Good morning, doctor," Rodolphe said to him. + +The doctor, flattered at this unexpected title, launched out into +obsequious phrases. Of this the other took advantage to pull himself +together a little. + +"Madame was speaking to me," he then said, "about her health." + +Charles interrupted him; he had indeed a thousand anxieties; his wife's +palpitations of the heart were beginning again. Then Rodolphe asked if +riding would not be good. + +"Certainly! excellent! just the thing! There's an idea! You ought to +follow it up." + +And as she objected that she had no horse, Monsieur Rodolphe offered +one. She refused his offer; he did not insist. Then to explain his visit +he said that his ploughman, the man of the blood-letting, still suffered +from giddiness. + +"I'll call round," said Bovary. + +"No, no! I'll send him to you; we'll come; that will be more convenient +for you." + +"Ah! very good! I thank you." + +And as soon as they were alone, "Why don't you accept Monsieur +Boulanger's kind offer?" + +She assumed a sulky air, invented a thousand excuses, and finally +declared that perhaps it would look odd. + +"Well, what the deuce do I care for that?" said Charles, making a +pirouette. "Health before everything! You are wrong." + +"And how do you think I can ride when I haven't got a habit?" + +"You must order one," he answered. + +The riding-habit decided her. + +When the habit was ready, Charles wrote to Monsieur Boulanger that his +wife was at his command, and that they counted on his good-nature. + +The next day at noon Rodolphe appeared at Charles's door with two +saddle-horses. One had pink rosettes at his ears and a deerskin +side-saddle. + +Rodolphe had put on high soft boots, saying to himself that no doubt she +had never seen anything like them. In fact, Emma was charmed with his +appearance as he stood on the landing in his great velvet coat and white +corduroy breeches. She was ready; she was waiting for him. + +Justin escaped from the chemist's to see her start, and the chemist also +came out. He was giving Monsieur Boulanger a little good advice. + +"An accident happens so easily. Be careful! Your horses perhaps are +mettlesome." + +She heard a noise above her; it was Félicité drumming on the +window-panes to amuse little Berthe. The child blew her a kiss; her +mother answered with a wave of her whip. + +"A pleasant ride!" cried Monsieur Homais. "Prudence! above all, +prudence!" And he flourished his newspaper as he saw them disappear. + +As soon as he felt the ground, Emma's horse set off at a gallop. +Rodolphe galloped by her side. Now and then they exchanged a word. Her +figure slightly bent, her hand well up, and her right arm stretched out, +she gave herself up to the cadence of the movement that rocked her in +her saddle. At the bottom of the hill Rodolphe gave his horse its head; +they started together at a bound, then at the top suddenly the horses +stopped, and her large blue veil fell about her. + +It was early in October. There was fog over the land. Hazy clouds +hovered on the horizon between the outlines of the hills; others, rent +asunder, floated up and disappeared. Sometimes through a rift in the +clouds, beneath a ray of sunshine, gleamed from afar the roofs of +Yonville, with the gardens at the water's edge, the yards, the walls, +and the church steeple. Emma half closed her eyes to pick out her house, +and never had this poor village where she lived appeared so small. From +the height on which they were, the whole valley seemed an immense pale +lake sending off its vapor into the air. Clumps of trees here and there +stood out like black rocks, and the tall lines of the poplars that rose +above the mist were like a beach stirred by the wind. + +Beside them, on the turf between the pines, a brown light shimmered in +the warm atmosphere. The earth, ruddy like the powder of tobacco, +deadened the noise of their steps, and with the edge of their shoes the +horses as they walked kicked the fallen fir cones in front of them. + +Rodolphe and Emma thus went along the skirt of the wood. She turned away +from time to time to avoid his look, and then she saw only the pine +trunks in lines, whose monotonous succession made her a little giddy. +The horses were panting; the leather of the saddles creaked. + +Just as they were entering the forest the sun shone out. + +"God protects us!" said Rodolphe. + +"Do you think so?" she said. + +"Forward! forward!" he continued. + +He "tchk'd" with his tongue. The two beasts set off at a trot. Long +ferns by the roadside caught in Emma's stirrup. Rodolphe leant forward +and removed them as they rode along. At other times to turn aside the +branches, he passed close to her, and Emma felt his knee brushing +against her leg. The sky was now blue, the leaves no longer stirred. +There were spaces full of heather in flower, and plots of violets +alternated with the confused patches of the trees that were gray, fawn, +or golden colored, according to the nature of their leaves. Often in the +thicket was heard the fluttering of wings, or else the hoarse, soft cry +of the ravens flying off amid the oaks. + +They dismounted. Rodolphe fastened up the horses. She walked on in front +on the moss between the paths. But her long habit got in her way, +although she held it up by the skirt; and Rodolphe, walking behind her, +saw between the black cloth and the black shoe the fineness of her white +stocking, that seemed to him as if it were a part of her nakedness. + +She stopped. "I am tired," she said. + +"Come, try again," he went on. "Courage!" + +Then some hundred paces farther on she again stopped, and through her +veil, that fell sideways from her man's hat over her hips, her face +appeared in a bluish transparency as if she were floating under azure +waves. + +"But where are we going?" + +He did not answer. She was breathing irregularly. Rodolphe looked round +him biting his mustache. They came to a larger space where the coppice +had been cut. They sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree, and Rodolphe +began speaking to her of his love. He did not begin by frightening her +with compliments. He was calm, serious, melancholy. + +Emma listened to him with bowed head, and stirred the bits of wood on +the ground with the tip of her foot. + +But at the words, "Are not our destinies now one?----" + +"Oh, no!" she replied. "You know that well. It is impossible!" + +She rose to go. He seized her by the wrist. She stopped. Then, having +gazed at him for a few moments with an amorous and humid look, she said +hurriedly: + +"Ah! do not speak of it again! Where are the horses? Let us go back." + +He made a gesture of anger and annoyance. She repeated: + +"Where are the horses? Where are the horses?" + +Then smiling a strange smile, his pupils fixed, his teeth set, he +advanced with outstretched arms. She recoiled trembling. She stammered: + +"Oh, you frighten me! You hurt me! Let us go!" + +"If it must be," he went on, his face changing; and he again became +respectful, caressing, timid. She gave him her arm. They went back. He +said: + +"What was the matter with you? Why? I do not understand. You were +mistaken, no doubt. In my soul you are as a Madonna on a pedestal, in a +place lofty, secure, immaculate. But I want you for my life. I must have +your eyes, your voice, your thought! Be my friend, my sister, my angel!" + +And he put out his arm around her waist. She feebly tried to disengage +herself. He supported her thus as they walked along. + +But they heard the two horses browsing on the leaves. + +"Oh! one moment!" said Rodolphe. "Do not let us go! Stay!" + +He drew her farther on to a small pool where duckweeds made a greenness +on the water. Faded waterlilies lay motionless between the reeds. At the +noise of their steps in the grass, frogs jumped away to hide themselves. + +"I am wrong! I am wrong!" she said. "I am mad to listen to you!" + +"Why? Emma! Emma!" + +"Oh, Rodolphe!" said the young woman slowly, leaning on his shoulder. + +The cloth of her habit caught against the velvet of his coat. She threw +back her white neck, swelling with a sigh, and faltering, in tears, with +a long shudder and hiding her face, she gave herself up to him. + +The shades of night were falling; the horizontal sun passing between the +branches dazzled the eyes. Here and there around her, in the leaves or +on the ground, trembled luminous patches, as if humming-birds flying +about had scattered their feathers. Silence was everywhere; something +sweet seemed to come forth from the trees; she felt her heart, whose +beating had begun again, and the blood coursing through her flesh like a +stream of milk. Then far away, beyond the wood, on the other hills, she +heard a vague prolonged cry, a voice which lingered, and in silence she +heard it mingling like music with the last pulsations of her throbbing +nerves. Rodolphe, a cigar between his lips, was mending with his +penknife one of the two broken bridles. + +They returned to Yonville by the same road. On the mud they saw again +the traces of their horses side by side, the same thickets, the same +stones in the grass; nothing around them seemed changed; and yet for her +something had happened more stupendous than if the mountains had moved +in their places. Rodolphe now and again bent forward and took her hand +to kiss it. + +She was charming on horseback--upright, with her slender waist, her knee +bent on the mane of her horse, her face something flushed by the fresh +air in the red of the evening. + +On entering Yonville she made her horse prance in the road. People +looked at her from the windows. + +At dinner her husband thought she looked well, but she pretended not to +hear him when he inquired about her ride, and she remained sitting there +with her elbow at the side of her plate between the two lighted candles. + +"'Emma!" he said. + +"What?" + +"Well, I spent the afternoon at Monsieur Alexandre's. He has an old cob, +still very fine, only a little broken-kneed, that could be bought, I am +very sure, for a hundred crowns." He added, "And thinking it might +please you, I have bespoken it--bought it. Have I done right? Do tell +me!" + +She nodded her head in assent; then a quarter of an hour later-- + +"Are you going out to-night?" she asked. + +"Yes. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing, nothing, my dear!" + +And as soon as she had got rid of Charles she went and shut herself up +in her room. + +At first she felt stunned; she saw the trees, the paths, the ditches, +Rodolphe, and she again felt the pressure of his arm, while the leaves +rustled and the reeds whistled. + +But when she saw herself in the glass she wondered at her face. Never +had her eyes been so large, so black, of so profound a depth. Something +subtle about her being transfigured her. She repeated, "I have a lover! +a lover!" delighting at the idea as if a second puberty had come to her. +So at last she was to know those joys of love, that fever of happiness +of which she had despaired! She was entering upon marvels where all +would be passion, ecstasy, delirium. An azure infinity encompassed her, +the heights of sentiment sparkled under her thought, and ordinary +existence appeared remote, far below in the shade, through the +interspaces of these heights. + +Then she recalled the heroines of the books that she had read, and the +lyric legion of these adulterous women began to sing in her memory with +the voice of sisters that charmed her. She became herself, as it were, +an actual part of these imaginings, and realized the love-dream of her +youth as she saw herself in this type of amorous women whom she had so +envied. Besides, Emma felt a satisfaction of revenge. Had she not +suffered enough? But now she triumphed, and the love so long pent up +burst forth in full joyous bubblings. She tasted it without remorse, +without anxiety, without trouble. + +The day following passed with a new sweetness. They made vows to one +another. She told him of her sorrows. Rodolphe interrupted her with +kisses; and she, looking at him through half-closed eyes, asked him to +call her again by her name--to say that he loved her. They were in the +forest, as yesterday, in the shed of some wooden-shoe maker. The walls +were of straw, and the roof so low they had to stoop. They were seated +side by side on a bed of dry leaves. + +From that day forth they wrote to one another regularly every evening. +Emma placed her letter at the end of the garden, by the river, in a +fissure of the wall. Rodolphe came to fetch it, and put another there, +that she always found fault with as too short. + +One morning, when Charles had gone out before daybreak, she was seized +with the fancy to see Rodolphe at once. She would go quickly to La +Huchette, stay there an hour, and be back again at Yonville while every +one was still asleep. This idea made her pant with desire, and she soon +found herself in the middle of the field, walking with rapid steps, +without looking behind her. + +Day was just breaking. Emma from afar recognized her lover's house. Its +two dove-tailed weathercocks stood out black against the pale dawn. + +Beyond the farmyard there was a detached building that she thought must +be the château. She entered it as if the doors at her approach had +opened wide of their own accord. A large straight staircase led up to +the corridor, Emma raised the latch of a door, and suddenly at the end +of the room she saw a man sleeping. It was Rodolphe. She uttered a cry. + +"You here? You here?" he repeated, "How did you manage to come? Ah! your +dress is damp." + +"I love you," she answered, passing her arms round his neck. + +This first piece of daring successful, now every time Charles went out +early Emma dressed quickly and slipped on tiptoe down the steps that led +to the waterside. + +But when the plank for the cows was taken up, she had to go by the walls +alongside of the river; the bank was slippery; in order not to fall she +caught hold of the tufts of faded wallflowers. Then she went across +ploughed fields, in which she sank, stumbling, and clogging her thin +shoes. Her scarf, knotted round her head, fluttered to the wind in the +meadows. She was afraid of the oxen; she began to run; she arrived out +of breath, with rosy cheeks, and breathing out from her whole person a +fresh perfume of sap, of verdure, of the open air. At this hour Rodolphe +still slept. It was like a spring morning coming into his room. + +The yellow curtains along the windows let a heavy, whitish light enter +softly. Emma felt about, opening and closing her eyes, while the drops +of dew hanging from her hair formed, as it were, a topaz aureole around +her face. Rodolphe, laughing, drew her to him and pressed her to his +breast. + +Then she examined the apartment, opened the drawers of the tables, +combed her hair with his comb, and looked at herself in his +shaving-glass. Often she even put between her teeth the big pipe that +lay on the table by the bed, amongst lemons and pieces of sugar near a +bottle of water. + +It took them a good quarter of an hour to say good-bye. Then Emma wept. +She would have wished never to leave Rodolphe. Something stronger than +herself forced her to him; so much so, that one day, seeing her come +unexpectedly, he frowned as one put out. + +"What is the matter with you?" she said. "Are you ill? Tell me!" + +At last he declared with a serious air that her visits were becoming +imprudent--that she was compromising herself. + + + + +X. + +LOVERS' VOWS. + + +Gradually Rodolphe's fears took possession of her. At first, love had +intoxicated her, and she had thought of nothing beyond. But now that he +was indispensable to her life, she feared to lose anything of this, or +even that it should be disturbed. When she came back from his house, she +looked all about her, anxiously watching every form that passed in the +horizon, and every village window from which she could be seen. She +listened for steps, cries, the noise of the ploughs, and she stopped +short, white, and trembling more than the aspen leaves swaying overhead. + +One morning as she was thus returning, she suddenly thought she saw the +long barrel of a carbine that seemed to be aimed at her. It stuck out +sideways from the end of a small tub half-buried in the grass on the +edge of a ditch. Emma, half-fainting with terror, nevertheless walked +on, and a man stepped out of the tub like a Jack-in-the-box. He had +gaiters buckled up to the knees, his cap pulled down over his eyes, +trembling lips, and a red nose. It was Captain Binet lying in ambush for +wild ducks. + +"You ought to have called out long ago!" he exclaimed. "When one sees a +gun, one should always give warning." + +The tax-collector was thus trying to hide the fright he had had, for a +prefectorial order having prohibited duck-hunting except in boats, +Monsieur Binet, despite his respect for the laws, was infringing them, +and so he every moment expected to see the rural guard turn up. But this +anxiety whetted his pleasure, and, all alone in his tub, he +congratulated himself on his luck and on his cleverness. + +At sight of Emma he seemed relieved from a great weight, and at once +entered upon a conversation. + +"It isn't warm; it's nipping." + +Emma answered nothing. He went on-- + +"And you're out so early?" + +"Yes," she said stammering; "I am just coming from the nurse where my +child is." + +"Ah! very good! very good! For myself, I am here, just as you see me, +since break of day; but the weather is so muggy, that unless one had the +bird at the mouth of the gun----" + +"Good evening, Monsieur Binet," she interrupted him, turning on her +heel. + +"Your servant, madame," he replied drily; and he went back into his tub. + +Emma regretted having left the tax-collector so abruptly. No doubt he +would form unfavorable conjectures. The story about the nurse was the +worst possible excuse, every one at Yonville knowing that the little +Bovary had been at home with her parents for a year. Besides, no one was +living in this direction; this path led only to La Huchette. Binet, +then, would guess whence she came, and he would not keep silence; he +would talk, that was certain. She remained until evening racking her +brain with every conceivable lying project, and had constantly before +her eyes that imbecile with the game-bag. + +Charles after dinner, seeing her gloomy, proposed, by way of +distraction, to take her to the chemist's, and the first person she +caught sight of in the shop was the tax-collector again. He was standing +in front of the counter, lighted by the gleams of the red bottle, and +was saying: + +"Please give me half an ounce of vitriol." + +"Justin," cried the druggist, "bring us the sulphuric acid." Then to +Emma, who was going up to Madame Homais' room, "No, stay here; it isn't +worth while going up; she is just coming down. Warm yourself at the +stove in the meantime. Excuse me. Good-day, doctor" (for the chemist +much enjoyed pronouncing the word "doctor," as if addressing another by +it reflected on himself some of the grandeur that he found in it). "Now, +take care not to upset the mortars! You'd better fetch some chairs from +the little room; you know very well that the armchairs are not to be +taken out of the drawing-room." + +And to put his armchair back in its place he was darting away from the +counter, when Binet asked him for half an ounce of sugar acid. + +"Sugar acid!" said the chemist contemptuously, "don't know it; I'm +ignorant of it! But perhaps you want oxalic acid. It is oxalic acid, +isn't it?" + +Binet explained that he wanted a corrosive to make himself some +copper-water with which to remove rust from his hunting things. + +Emma shuddered. The chemist began, saying: + +"Indeed the weather is not propitious on account of the damp." + +"Nevertheless," replied the tax-collector, with a sly look, "there are +people who like it." + +She was stifling. + +"And give me----" + +"Will he never go?" thought she. + +"Half an ounce of resin and turpentine, four ounces of yellow wax, and +three half ounces of animal charcoal, if you please, to clean the +varnished leather of my togs." + +The chemist was beginning to cut the wax when Madame Homais appeared, +Irma in her arms, Napoléon by her side, and Athalie following. She sat +down on the velvet seat by the window, and the lad squatted down on a +footstool, while his eldest sister hovered round the jujube box near her +papa. The latter was filling funnels and corking phials, sticking on +labels, making up parcels. Around him all were silent; only from time to +time were heard the weights jingling in the balance, and a few low words +from the chemist giving directions to his pupil. + +"And how's the little woman?" suddenly asked Madame Homais. + +"Silence!" exclaimed her husband, who was writing down some figures in +his waste-book. + +"Why didn't you bring her?" she went on in a low voice. + +"Hush! hush!" said Emma, pointing with her finger to the chemist. + +But Binet, quite absorbed in looking over his bill, had probably heard +nothing. At last he went out. Then Emma, relieved, uttered a deep sigh. + +"How hard you are breathing!" said Madame Homais. + +"Well, you see, it's rather warm," she replied. + +The next day the lovers discussed how to arrange their rendezvous. Emma +wanted to bribe her servant with a present, but it would be better to +find some safe house at Yonville. Rodolphe promised to look for one. + +All through the winter, three or four times a week, in the dead of night +he came to the garden. Emma had on purpose taken away the key of the +gate, which Charles thought lost. + +To call her, Rodolphe threw a sprinkle of sand at the shutters. She +jumped up with a start; but sometimes he had to wait, for Charles had a +mania for chatting by the fireside, and he would not stop. She was wild +with impatience; if her eyes could have done it, she would have hurled +him out at the window. At last she would begin to undress, then take up +a book, and go on reading very quietly as if the book amused her. But +Charles, who was in bed, called to her to come too. + +"Come, now, Emma," he said, "it is time." + +"Yes, I am coming," she answered. + +Then, as the candles dazzled him, he turned to the wall and fell asleep. +She escaped, smiling, palpitating, undressed. + +Rodolphe had a large cloak; he wrapped her in it, and putting his arm +around her waist, he drew her without a word to the end of the garden. + +It was in the arbor, on the same seat of old sticks where formerly Léon +had looked at her so amorously on the summer evenings. She never thought +of him now. + +The stars shone through the leafless jasmine branches. Behind them they +heard the river flowing, and now and again on the bank the rustling of +the dry reeds. Masses of shadow here and there loomed out in the +darkness and sometimes, vibrating with one movement, they rose up and +swayed like immense black waves pressing forward to engulf them. The +cold of the nights made them clasp closer; the sighs of their lips +seemed to them deeper; their eyes, that they could hardly see, larger; +and in the midst of the silence low words were spoken that fell on their +souls sonorous, crystalline, and reverberating in multiplied vibrations. + +When the night was rainy, they took refuge in the consulting-room +between the car-shed and the stable. She lighted one of the kitchen +candles that she had hidden behind the books. Rodolphe settled down +there as if at home. The sight of the library, of the bureau, of the +whole apartment, in fine, excited his merriment, and he could not +refrain from making jokes about Charles, which rather embarrassed Emma. +She would have liked to see him more serious, and even on occasions more +dramatic; as, for example, when she thought she heard a noise of +approaching steps in the alley. + +"Some one is coming!" she said. + +He blew out the light. + +"Have you your pistols?" + +"Why?" + +"Why, to defend yourself," replied Emma. + +"From your husband? Oh, poor devil!" And Rodolphe finished his sentence +with a gesture that said, "I could crush him with a flip of my finger." + +She was wonder-stricken at his bravery, although she felt in it a sort +of indecency and a naïve coarseness that scandalized her. + +Rodolphe reflected a good deal on the affair of the pistols. If she had +spoken seriously, it was very ridiculous, he thought, even odious; for +he had no reason to hate the good Charles, not being what is called +devoured by jealousy; and on this subject Emma had treated him to a +lecture, which he did not think in the best taste. + +Besides, she was growing very sentimental. She had insisted on +exchanging miniatures; they had cut handfuls of hair, and now she was +asking for a ring--a real wedding-ring, in sign of an eternal union. She +often spoke to him of the evening chimes, of the voices of nature. Then +she talked to him of her mother--hers! and of his mother--his! Rodolphe +had lost his twenty years ago. Emma none the less consoled him with +caressing words as one would soothe a forsaken child, and she sometimes +even said to him, gazing at the moon: + +"I am sure that above there together they approve of our love." + +But she was so pretty! He had possessed so few women of such +ingenuousness. This love without debauchery was a new experience for +him, and, drawing him out of his lazy habits, caressed at once his pride +and his sensuality. Emma's enthusiasm, which his bourgeois good sense +disdained, seemed to him in his heart of hearts charming, since it was +lavished on him. Then, sure of being loved, he no longer kept up +appearances, and insensibly his ways changed. + +He had no longer, as formerly, words so gentle that they made her cry, +nor passionate caresses that made her mad; so that their great love, +which engrossed her life, seemed to lessen beneath her like the water +of a stream absorbed into its channel, and she could see the bed of it. +She would not believe it; she redoubled in tenderness, and Rodolphe +concealed his indifference less and less. + +She did not know whether she regretted yielding to him, or whether she +did not wish, on the contrary, to enjoy him the more. The humiliation of +feeling herself weak was turning to rancour, tempered by their +voluptuous pleasures. It was not affection; it was like a continual +seduction. He subjugated her; she almost feared him. + +Appearances, nevertheless, were calmer than ever, Rodolphe having +succeeded in carrying out the adultery after his own fancy; and at the +end of six months, when the spring-time came, they were to one another +like a married couple, tranquilly keeping up a domestic flame. + +It was the time of year when old Rouault sent his turkey in remembrance +of the setting of his leg. The present always arrived with a letter. +Emma cut the string that tied it to the basket, and read the following +lines:-- + + "MY DEAR CHILDREN,--I hope this will find you in good health, and + that it will be as good as the others, for it seems to me a little + more tender, if I may venture to say so, and heavier. But next time, + for a change, I'll give you a turkey-cock, unless you have a + preference for some dabs; and send me back the hamper, if you + please, with the two old ones. I have had an accident with my + cart-sheds, whose covering flew off one windy night among the trees. + The harvest has not been over-good either. Finally, I don't know + when I shall come to see you. It is so difficult now to leave the + house since I am alone, my poor Emma." + +Here there was a break in the lines, as if the old fellow had dropped +his pen to dream a little while. + + "For myself, I am very well, except for a cold I caught the other + day at the fair at Yvetot, where I had gone to hire a shepherd, + having turned away mine because he was too dainty. How we are to be + pitied with such a lot of thieves! Besides, he was also rude. I + heard from a pedlar, who, traveling through your part of the country + this winter, had a tooth drawn, that Bovary was as usual working + hard. That doesn't surprise me; and he showed me his tooth; we had + some coffee together. I asked him if he had seen you, and he said + not, but that he had seen two horses in the stables, from which I + conclude that business is looking up. So much the better, my dear + children, and may God send you every imaginable happiness! It + grieves me not yet to have seen my dear little grand-daughter, + Berthe Bovary. I have planted an Orleans plum-tree for her in the + garden under your room, and I won't have it touched unless it is to + have jam made for her by-and-bye, that I will keep in the cupboard + for when she comes. + + "Good-bye my dear children. I kiss you, my girl, you too, my + son-in-law, and the little one on both cheeks. I am, with best + compliments, your loving father, + + "THÉODORE ROUAULT." + +She held the coarse paper in her fingers for some minutes. The mistakes +in spelling interwove with one another, but Emma followed the kindly +thought that chattered through it all like a hen half hidden in a hedge +of thorns. The writing had been dried with ashes from the hearth, for a +little grey powder slipped from the letter on to her dress, and she +almost thought she saw her father bending over the hearth to take up the +tongs. How long since she had been with him, sitting on the footstool in +the chimney-corner, where she used to burn the end of a bit of wood in +the great flame of the sea-sedges! She remembered the summer evenings +all full of sunshine. The colts neighed when any one passed by, and +galloped, galloped. Under her window there was a beehive, and sometimes +the bees wheeling round in the light struck against her window like +rebounding balls of gold. What happiness she had had at that time, what +freedom, what hope! What an abundance of illusions! Nothing was left of +them now. She had got rid of them all in her soul's life, in all her +successive conditions of life,--maidenhood, her marriage, and her +love;--thus constantly losing them all her life through, like a +traveller who leaves something of his wealth at every inn along his +road. + +But what, then, made her so unhappy? What was the extraordinary +catastrophe that had transformed her? And she raised her head, looking +round as if to seek the cause of that which made her suffer. + +An April ray was dancing on the china of the _étagère_; the fire burned; +beneath her slippers she felt the softness of the carpet; the day was +bright, the air warm, and she heard her child shouting with laughter. + +In fact, the little girl was just then rolling on the lawn in the midst +of the grass that was being turned. She was lying flat on her stomach +at the top of a rick. The servant was holding her by her skirt. +Lestiboudois was raking by her side, and every time he came near she +leant forward, beating the air with both her arms. + +"Bring her to me," said her mother, rushing to embrace her. "How I love +you, my poor child! How I love you!" + +Then, noticing that the tips of her ears were rather dirty, she rang at +once for warm water, and washed her, changed her linen, her stockings, +her shoes, asked a thousand questions about her health, as if on the +return from a long journey, and finally, kissing her again and crying a +little, she gave her back to the servant, who stood quite +thunder-stricken at this excess of tenderness. + +That evening Rodolphe found her more serious than usual. + +"That will pass over," he concluded; "it's a whim." + +And he missed three rendezvous running. When he did come, she showed +herself cold and almost contemptuous. + +"Ah! you're losing your time, my lady!" + +And he pretended not to notice her melancholy sighs, nor the +handkerchief she took out. + +Then Emma repented. She even asked herself why she detested Charles; if +it had not been better to have been able to love him? But he gave her no +opportunities for such a revival of sentiment, so that she was much +embarrassed by her desire for sacrifice, when the chemist came just in +time to provide her with an opportunity. + + + + +XI. + +AN EXPERIMENT AND A FAILURE. + + +He had recently read a eulogy on a new method for curing club-foot, and +as he was a partisan of progress, he conceived the patriotic idea that +Yonville, in order to keep to the fore, ought to have some operations +for strephopody or club-foot. + +"For," said he to Emma, "what risk is there? See" (and he enumerated on +his fingers the advantages of the attempt), "success, almost certain +relief and beautifying the patient, celebrity acquired by the operator. +Why, for example, should not your husband relieve poor Hippolyte of the +'Lion d'Or'? Note that he would not fail to tell about his cure to all +the travellers, and then" (Homais lowered his voice and looked round +him), "who is to prevent me from sending a short paragraph on the +subject to the paper? Eh! goodness me! an article gets about; it is +talked of; it ends by making a snowball! And who knows? who knows?" + +In fact, Bovary might succeed. Nothing proved to Emma that he was not +clever; and what a satisfaction for her to have urged him to a step by +which his reputation and fortune would be increased! She only wished to +lean on something more solid than love. + +Charles, urged by the chemist and by her, allowed himself to be +persuaded. He sent to Rouen for Dr. Duval's volume, and every evening, +holding his head between both hands, plunged into the reading of it. + +While he was studying equinus, varus, and valgus, that is to say, +_katastrephopody_, _endostrephopody_, and _exostrephopody_ (or better, +the various turnings of the foot downwards, inwards, and outwards, with +the _hypostrephopody_ and _anastrephopody_), otherwise torsion downwards +and upwards, Monsieur Homais, with all sorts of arguments, was exhorting +the lad at the inn to submit to the operation. + +"You will scarcely feel, probably, a slight pain; it is a simple prick, +like a little blood-letting, less than the extraction of certain corns." + +Hippolyte, reflecting, rolled his stupid eyes. + +"However," continued the chemist, "it doesn't concern me. It's for your +sake, for pure humanity! I should like to see you, my friend, rid of +your hideous deformity, together with that waddling of the lumbar +regions which, whatever you say, must considerably interfere with you in +the exercise of your calling." + +Then Homais represented to him how much jollier and brisker he would +feel afterwards, and even gave him to understand that he would be more +likely to please the women; and the stable-boy began to smile heavily. +Then he attacked him through his vanity:-- + +"Aren't you a man? Hang it! what would you have done if you had had to +go into the army, to go and fight beneath the standard? Ah! Hippolyte!" + +And Homais retired, declaring that he could not understand this +obstinacy, this blindness in refusing the benefactions of science. + +The poor fellow gave way, for it was like a conspiracy. Binet, who never +interfered with other people's business, Madame Lefrançois, Artémise, +the neighbors, even the mayor, Monsieur Tuvache--every one persuaded +him, lectured him, shamed him; but what finally decided him was that it +would cost him nothing. Bovary even undertook to provide the machine for +the operation. This generosity was an idea of Emma's, and Charles +consented to it, thinking in his heart of hearts that his wife was an +angel. + +So, by the advice of the chemist, and after three fresh starts, he had a +kind of box made by the carpenter, with the aid of the locksmith, that +weighed about eight pounds, in which iron, wood, sheet-iron, leather, +screws, and nuts had not been spared. + +But to know which of Hippolyte's tendons to cut, it was necessary first +of all to find out what kind of club-foot he had. + +He had a foot forming almost a straight line with the leg, which, +however, did not prevent it from being turned in, so that it was an +equinus together with something of a varus, or else a slight varus with +a strong tendency to equinus. But with this equinus, wide in foot like a +horse's hoof, with rugose skin, dry tendons, and large toes, on which +the black nails looked as if made of iron, the club-foot ran about like +a deer from morn till night. He was constantly to be seen on the Place, +jumping around the carts, thrusting his limping foot forward. He seemed +even stronger on that leg than the other. By dint of hard service it had +acquired, as it were, moral qualities of patience and of energy; and +when he was doing some heavy work, he stood on it in preference to its +fellow. + +Now, as it was an equinus, it was necessary to cut the tendo Achillis, +and, if need were, the anterior tibial muscle could be seen to +afterwards for getting rid of the varus; for the doctor did not dare to +risk both operations at once; he was even trembling already for fear of +injuring some important region that he did not know. + +Neither Ambrose Paré, applying for the first time since Celsus, after an +interval of fifteen centuries, a ligature to an artery, nor Dupuytren, +about to open an abscess in the brain, nor Gensoul when he first took +away the superior maxilla, had hearts that trembled, hands that shook, +minds so strained as had the doctor when he approached Hippolyte, his +tenotome between his fingers. And, as at hospitals, near by on a table +lay a heap of lint, with waxed thread, many bandages--a pyramid of +bandages--every bandage to be found at the chemist's. It was Monsieur +Homais who since morning had been organising all these preparations, as +much to dazzle the multitude as to keep up his illusions. Charles +pierced the skin; a dry crackling was heard. The tendon was cut, the +operation over. Hippolyte could not get over his surprise, but bent over +Bovary's hands to cover them with kisses. + +"Come, be calm," said the chemist; "later you will show your gratitude +to your benefactor." + +And he went down to tell the result to five or six inquirers who were +waiting in the yard, and who fancied that Hippolyte would reappear +walking properly. Then Charles, having buckled his patient into the +machine, went home, where Emma, all anxiety, awaited him at the door. +She threw herself on his neck: they sat down to table; he ate much, and +at dessert he even wished to take a cup of coffee, a luxury he permitted +himself only on Sundays when there was company. + +The evening was charming, full of prattle, of dreams together. They +talked about their future fortune, of the improvements to be made in +their house; he saw people's estimation of him growing, his comforts +increasing, his wife always loving him; and she was happy to refresh +herself with a new sentiment, healthier, better, to feel at last some +tenderness for this poor fellow who adored her. The thought of Rodolphe +for one moment passed through her mind, but her eyes turned again to +Charles; she even noticed with surprise that he had not bad teeth. + +They were in bed when Monsieur Homais, in spite of the servant, suddenly +entered the room, holding in his hand a sheet of paper just written. It +was the paragraph he intended for the "Fanal de Rouen." He brought it +them to read. + +"Read it yourself," said Bovary. + +He read: + +"'Despite the prejudices that still cover a part of the face of Europe +like a net, the light nevertheless begins to penetrate our country +places. Thus on Tuesday our little town of Yonville found itself the +scene of a surgical operation which is at the same time an act of +loftiest philanthropy. Monsieur Bovary, one of our most distinguished +practitioners----" + +"Oh, that is too much! too much!" said Charles, choking with emotion. + +"No, no! not at all! What next!" + +"'----Performed an operation on a club-footed man.' I have not used the +scientific term, because you know in a newspaper every one would not +perhaps understand. The masses must----" + +"No doubt," said Bovary; "go on!" + +"I proceed," said the chemist. "'Monsieur Bovary, one of our most +distinguished practitioners, performed an operation on a club-footed man +called Hippolyte Tautain, stable-man for the last twenty-five years at +the hotel of the "Lion d'Or," kept by Widow Lefrançois, at the Place +d'Armes. The novelty of the attempt, and the interest incident to the +subject, had attracted such a concourse of persons that there was a +veritable obstruction on the threshold of the establishment. The +operation, moreover, was performed as if by magic, and barely a few +drops of blood appeared on the skin, as if to show that the rebellious +tendon had at last given way beneath the efforts of art. The patient, +strangely enough--we affirm it as an eye-witness--complained of no pain. +His condition up to the present time leaves nothing to be desired. +Everything tends to show that his convalescence will be brief; and who +knows whether, at our next village festivity, we shall not see our good +Hippolyte figuring in the bacchic dance in the midst of a chorus of +joyous boon-companions, and thus proving to all eyes by his verve and +his capers his complete cure? Honor, then, to the generous savants! +Honor to those indefatigable spirits who consecrate their vigils to the +amelioration or to the alleviation of their kind! Honor, thrice honor! +Is it not time to cry that the blind shall see, the deaf hear, the lame +walk? But that which fanaticism formerly promised to its elect, science +now accomplishes for all men. We shall keep our readers informed as to +the successive phases of this remarkable cure.'" + + * * * + +This did not prevent Mère Lefrançois from coming five days after, +scared, and crying out-- + +"Help! he is dying! I am going crazy!" + +Charles rushed to the "Lion d'Or," and the chemist, who caught sight of +him passing along the Place hatless, abandoned his shop. He appeared +himself breathless, red, anxious, and asking every one who was going up +the stairs-- + +"Why, what's the matter with our interesting strephopode?" + +The strephopode was writhing in hideous convulsions, so that the machine +in which his leg was enclosed was knocked against the wall enough to +break it. + +With many precautions, in order not to disturb the position of the limb, +the box was removed, and an awful sight presented itself. The outlines +of the foot disappeared in such a swelling that the entire skin seemed +about to burst, and it was covered with ecchymosis, caused by the famous +machine. Hippolyte had already complained of suffering from it. No +attention had been paid to him; they had to acknowledge that he had not +been altogether wrong, and he was freed for a few hours. But hardly had +the oedema gone down to some extent, than the two savants thought fit +to put back the limb in the apparatus, strapping it tighter to hasten +matters. At last, three days after, Hippolyte being unable to endure it +any longer, they once more removed the machine, and were much surprised +at the result they saw. The livid tumefaction spread over the leg, with +blisters here and there, whence oozed a black liquid. Matters were +taking a serious turn. Hippolyte began to worry himself, and Mère +Lefrançois had him installed in the little room near the kitchen, so +that he might at least have some distraction. + +But the tax-collector, who dined there every day, complained bitterly of +such companionship. Then Hippolyte was removed to the billiard-room. He +lay there moaning under his heavy coverings, pale, with long beard, +sunken eyes, and from time to time turning his perspiring head on the +dirty pillow, where the flies alighted. Madame Bovary went to see him. +She brought him linen for his poultices; she comforted and encouraged +him. Besides, he did not want for company, especially on market-days, +when the peasants were knocking about the billiard-balls round him, +fenced with the cues, smoked, drank, sang, and brawled. + +"How are you?" they said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Ah! you're not +up to much, it seems, but it's your own fault. You should do this! do +that!" And then they told him stories of people who had all been cured +by other remedies than his. Then by way of consolation they added:-- + +"You give way too much! Get up! You coddle yourself like a king! All the +same, old chap, you don't smell nice!" + +Gangrene, in fact, was spreading more and more. Bovary himself turned +sick at it. He came every hour, every moment. Hippolyte looked at him +with eyes full of terror, sobbing-- + +"When shall I get well? Oh, save me! How unfortunate I am! how +unfortunate I am!" + +And the doctor left, always recommending him to diet himself. + +"Don't listen to him, my lad," said Mère Lefrançois. "Haven't they +tortured you enough already? You'll grow still weaker. Here! swallow +this." + +And she gave him some good beef-tea, a slice of mutton, a piece of +bacon, and sometimes small glasses of brandy, that he had not the +strength to put to his lips. + +Abbé Bournisien, hearing that he was growing worse, asked to see him. He +began by pitying his sufferings, declaring at the same time that he +ought to rejoice at them since it was the will of the Lord, and take +advantage of the occasion to reconcile himself to Heaven. + +"For," said the ecclesiastic in a paternal tone, "you rather neglected +your duties; you were rarely seen at divine worship. How many years is +it since you approached the holy table? I understand that your work, +that the whirl of the world may have kept you from care for your +salvation. But now is the time to reflect. Yet don't despair. I have +known great sinners, who, about to appear before God (you are not yet at +this point, I know), had implored His mercy, and who certainly died in +the best frame of mind. Let us hope that, like them, you will set us a +good example. Thus, as a precaution, what is to prevent you from saying +morning and evening a 'Hail Mary, full of grace,' and 'Our Father which +art in heaven'? Yes, do that, for my sake, to oblige me. That won't cost +you anything. Will you promise me?" + +The poor devil promised. The curé came back day after day. He chatted +with the landlady, and even told anecdotes interspersed with jokes and +puns that Hippolyte did not understand. Then, as soon as he could, he +fell back upon matters of religion, putting on an appropriate expression +of face. + +His zeal seemed successful, for the club-foot soon manifested a desire +to go on a pilgrimage to Bon-Secours if he were cured; to which Monsieur +Bournisien replied that he saw no objection; two precautions were better +than one; it was no risk. + +The chemist was indignant at what he called the manoeuvres of the +priest; they were prejudicial, he said, to Hippolyte's convalescence, +and he kept repeating to Madame Lefrançois, "Leave him alone! leave him +alone! You perturb his morals with your mysticism." + +But the good woman would no longer listen to him; he was the cause of it +all. From a spirit of contradiction she hung up near the bedside of the +patient a basin filled with holy-water and a branch of box. + +Religion, however, seemed no more able to succour him than surgery, and +the invincible gangrene still spread from the extremities towards the +stomach. It was all very well to vary the potions and change the +poultices; the muscles each day rotted more and more; and at last +Charles replied by an affirmative nod of the head when Mère Lefrançois +asked him if she could not, as a forlorn hope, send for Monsieur Canivet +of Neufchâtel, who was a celebrity. + +A doctor of medicine, fifty years of age, enjoying a good position and +self-possessed, Charles's colleague did not refrain from laughing +disdainfully when he had uncovered the leg, mortified to the knee. Then +having flatly declared that it must be amputated, he went off to the +chemist's to rail at the asses who could have reduced a poor man to such +a state. Shaking Monsieur Homais by the button of his coat, he shouted +out in the shop: + +"These are the inventions of Paris! These are the ideas of those gentry +of the capital! It is like strabismus, chloroform, lithotrity, a heap of +monstrosities that the Government ought to prohibit. But they want to do +the clever, and they cram you with remedies without troubling about the +consequences. We are not so clever, not we! We are not savants, +coxcombs, fops! We are practitioners; we cure people, and we should not +dream of operating on any one who is in perfect health. Straighten +club-feet! As if one could straighten club-feet! It is as if one wished, +for example, to make a hunchback straight!" + +Homais suffered as he listened to this discourse, and he concealed his +discomfort beneath a courtier's smile; for he needed to humour Monsieur +Canivet, whose prescriptions sometimes came as far as Yonville. So he +did not take up the defense of Bovary; he did not even make a single +remark, and, renouncing his principles, he sacrificed his dignity to the +more serious interests of his business. + +This amputation of the thigh by Doctor Canivet was a great event in the +village. On that day all the inhabitants got up earlier, and the Grande +Rue, although full of people, had something lugubrious about it, as if +an execution had been expected. At the grocer's they discussed +Hippolyte's illness; the shops did no business, and Madame Tuvache, the +mayor's wife, did not stir from her window, such was her impatience to +see the operator arrive. + +He came in his gig, which he drove himself. But the springs of the right +side having at length given way beneath the weight of his corpulence, it +happened that the carriage as it rolled along leaned over a little, and +on the other cushion near him could be seen a large box covered in red +sheep-leather, whose three brass clasps shone grandly. + +After he had entered like a whirlwind the porch of the "Lion d'Or," the +doctor, shouting very loud, ordered them to unharness his horse. Then he +went into the stable to see that he was eating his oats all right; for +on arriving at a patient's he first of all looked after his mare and his +gig. People even said about this: + +"Ah! Monsieur Camvet's a character!" + +And he was the more esteemed for this imperturbable coolness. The +universe to the last man might have died, and he would not have missed +the smallest of his habits. + +Homais presented himself. + +"I count on you," said the doctor. "Are we ready? Come along!" + +But the chemist, turning red, confessed that he was too sensitive to +assist at such an operation. + +"When one is a simple spectator," he said, "the imagination, you know, +is impressed. And then I have such a nervous system!" + +"Pshaw!" interrupted Canivet; "on the contrary, you seem to me inclined +to apoplexy. Besides, that doesn't astonish me, for you chemist fellows +are always poking about your kitchens, which must end by spoiling your +constitutions. Now just look at me. I get up every day at four o'clock; +I shave with cold water (and am never cold). I don't wear flannels, and +I never catch cold; my carcass is good enough! I live now in one way, +now in another, like a philosopher, taking pot-luck; that is why I am +not squeamish like you, and it is as indifferent to me to carve a +Christian as the first fowl that turns up. Then, perhaps, you will say, +habit! habit!" + +Then, without any consideration for Hippolyte, who was sweating with +agony between his sheets, these gentlemen entered into a conversation, +in which the chemist compared the coolness of a surgeon to that of a +general; and this comparison was pleasing to Canivet, who launched out +on the exigencies of his art. He looked upon it as a sacred office, +although the ordinary practitioners dishonoured it. At last, coming back +to the patient, he examined the bandages brought by Homais, the same +that had appeared for the club-foot, and asked for some one to hold the +limb for him. Lestiboudois was sent for, and Monsieur Canivet having +turned up his sleeves, passed into the billiard-room, while the chemist +stayed with Artémise and the landlady, both whiter than their aprons, +and with ears strained towards the door. + +Bovary during this time did not dare to stir from his house. He kept +downstairs in the sitting-room by the side of the fireless chimney, his +chin on his breast, his hands clasped, his eyes staring. "What a +mishap!" he thought, "what a mishap!" Perhaps, after all, he had made +some slip. He thought it over, but could hit upon nothing. But the most +famous surgeons also made mistakes; and that is what no one would ever +believe! People, on the contrary, would laugh, jeer! It would spread as +far as Forges, as Neufchâtel, as Rouen, everywhere! Who could say if his +colleagues would not write against him. Polemics would ensue; he would +have to answer in the papers. Hippolyte might even prosecute him. He saw +himself dishonored, ruined, lost; and his imagination, assailed by a +world of hypotheses, tossed amongst them like an empty cask borne by the +sea and floating upon the waves. + +Emma, opposite, watched him; she did not share his humiliation; she felt +another--that of having supposed such a man was worth anything. As if +twenty times already she had not sufficiently perceived his mediocrity. + +Charles was walking up and down the room; his boots creaked on the +floor. + +"Sit down," she said; "you fidget me." + +He sat down again. + +How was it that she--she, who was so intelligent--could have allowed +herself to be deceived again? and through what deplorable madness had +she thus ruined her life by continual sacrifices? She recalled all her +instincts of luxury, all the privations of her soul, the sordidness of +marriage, of the household, her dream sinking into the mire like wounded +swallows; all that she had longed for, all that she had denied herself, +all that she might have had! And for what? for what? + +In the midst of the silence that hung over the village a heart-rending +cry rose on the air. Bovary turned white to fainting. She knit her brows +with a nervous gesture, then went on. And it was for him, for this +creature, for this man, who understood nothing, who felt nothing! For he +was there quite quiet, not even suspecting that the ridicule of his name +would henceforth sully hers as well as his. She had made efforts to love +him, and she had repented with tears for having yielded to another! + +"But it was perhaps a valgus!" suddenly exclaimed Bovary, who was +meditating. + +At the unexpected shock of this phrase falling on her thought like a +leaden bullet on a silver plate, Emma, shuddering, raised her head in +order to find out what he meant to say; and they looked one at the other +in silence, almost amazed to see each other, so far sundered were they +by their inner thoughts. Charles gazed at her with the dull look of a +drunken man, while he listened motionless to the last cries of the +sufferer, that followed each other in long-drawn modulations, broken by +sharp spasms like the far-off howling of some beast being slaughtered. +Emma bit her wan lips, and rolling between her fingers a piece of coral +that she had broken, fixed on Charles the burning glance of her eyes +like two arrows of fire about to dart forth. Everything in him irritated +her now; his face, his dress, what he did not say, his whole person, his +existence, in fine. She repented of her past virtue as of a crime, and +what still remained of it crumbled away beneath the furious blows of her +pride. She revelled in all the evil ironies of triumphant adultery. The +memory of her lover came back to her with dazzling attractions; she +threw her whole soul into it, borne away towards this image with a fresh +enthusiasm; and Charles seemed to her as much removed from her life, as +absent for ever, as impossible and annihilated, as if he had been about +to die and were passing under her eyes. + +There was a sound of steps on the pavement. Charles looked up, and +through the lowered blinds he saw at the corner of the market in the +broad sunshine Dr. Canivet, who was wiping his brow with his +handkerchief. Homais, behind him, was carrying a large red box in his +hand, and both were going towards the chemist's. + +Then with a feeling of sudden tenderness and discouragement Charles +turned to his wife saying to her: + +"Oh, kiss me, my own!" + +"Leave me!" she said, red with anger. + +"What is the matter?" he asked, stupefied. "Be calm; compose yourself. +You know well enough that I love you. Come!" + +"Enough!" she cried with a terrible look. + +And escaping from the room, Emma closed the door so violently that the +barometer fell from the wall and smashed on the floor. + +Charles sank back into his armchair overwhelmed, trying to discover +what could be wrong with her, fancying some nervous illness, weeping, +and vaguely feeling something fatal and incomprehensible whirling round +him. + +When Rodolphe came to the garden that evening, he found his mistress +waiting for him at the foot of the steps on the lowest stair. They threw +their arms round one another, and all their rancour melted like snow +beneath the warmth of that kiss. + + + + +XII. + +PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT. + + +They began to love one another again. Often, even in the middle of the +day, Emma suddenly wrote to him, then from the window made a sign to +Justin, who, taking his apron off, quickly ran to La Huchette. Rodolphe +would come; she had sent for him to tell him that she was bored; that +her husband was odious, her life frightful. + +"But what can I do?" he cried one day impatiently. + +"Ah! if you would--" + +She was sitting on the floor between his knees, her hair loose, her look +lost. + +"Why, what?" said Rodolphe. + +She sighed. + +"We would go and live elsewhere--somewhere!" + +"You are really mad!" he said laughing. "How could that be possible?" + +She returned to the subject; he pretended not to understand, and turned +the conversation. + +What he did not understand was all this worry about so simple an affair +as love. She had a motive, a reason, and, as it were, a pendant to her +affection. + +Her tenderness, in fact, grew each day with her repulsion to her +husband. The more she gave up herself to the one, the more she loathed +the other. Never had Charles seemed to her so disagreeable, to have such +stodgy fingers, such vulgar ways, to be so dull as when they found +themselves together after her meeting with Rodolphe. Then, while playing +the spouse and virtue, she was burning at the thought of that head whose +black hair fell in a curl over the sunburnt brow, of that form at once +so strong and elegant, of that man, in a word, who had such experience +in his reasoning, such passion in his desires. It was for him that she +filed her nails with the care of a chaser, and that there was never +enough cold-cream for her skin, nor of patchouli for her handkerchiefs. +She loaded herself with bracelets, rings, and necklaces. When he was +coming she filled the two large blue glass vases with roses, and +prepared her room and her person like a courtesan expecting a prince. +The servant had to be constantly washing linen, and all day Félicité did +not stir from the kitchen, where little Justin, who often kept her +company, watched her at work. + +With his elbows on the long board on which she was ironing, he greedily +watched all these women's clothes spread out about him, the dimity +petticoats, the fichus, the collars, and the drawers with running +strings, wide at the hips and growing narrower below. + +"What is that for?" asked the young fellow, passing his hand over the +crinoline or the hooks and eyes. + +"Why, haven't you ever seen anything?" Félicité answered laughing. "As +if your mistress, Madame Homais, didn't wear the same." + +"Oh, I daresay! Madame Homais!" And he added with a meditative air, "As +if she were a lady like madame!" + +But Félicité grew impatient of seeing him hanging round her. She was six +years older than he, and Théodore, Monsieur Guillaumin's servant, was +beginning to pay court to her. + +"Let me alone," she said, moving her pot of starch. "You'd better be off +and pound almonds; you are always dangling about women. Before you +meddle with such things, bad boy, wait till you've got a beard to your +chin." + +"Oh, don't be cross! I'll go and clean her boots." + +And he at once took down from the shelf Emma's boots, all coated with +mud, the mud of the rendezvous, that crumbled into powder beneath his +fingers, and that he watched as it gently rose in a ray of sunlight. + +"How afraid you are of spoiling them!" said the servant, who wasn't so +particular when she cleaned them herself, because as soon as the stuff +of the boots was no longer fresh madame handed them over to her. + +Emma had many shoes in her closet that she wore out one after the other, +without Charles allowing himself the slightest observation. So also he +disbursed three hundred francs for a wooden leg that she thought proper +to make a present of to Hippolyte. Its top was covered with cork, and it +had spring joints, a complicated mechanism, covered over by black +trousers ending in a patent-leather boot. But Hippolyte, not daring to +use such a handsome leg every day, begged Madame Bovary to get him +another more convenient one. The doctor, of course, had again to defray +the expense of this purchase. + +So little by little the stable-man took up his work again. One saw him +running about the village as before, and when Charles heard from afar +the sharp noise of the wooden leg, he at once went in another direction. + +It was Monsieur Lheureux, the shopkeeper, who had undertaken the order; +this provided him with an excuse for visiting Emma. He chatted with her +about the new goods from Paris, about a thousand feminine trifles, made +himself very obliging, and never asked for his money. Emma yielded to +this lazy mode of satisfying all her caprices. Thus she wanted to have a +very handsome riding-whip that was at an umbrella-maker's at Rouen, to +give to Rodolphe. The week after Monsieur Lheureux placed it on her +table. + +But the next day he called on her with a bill for two hundred and +seventy francs, not counting the centimes. Emma was much embarrassed; +all the drawers of the writing-table were empty; they owed over a +fortnight's wages to Lestiboudois, two quarters to the servant, for any +quantity of other things, and Bovary was impatiently expecting Monsieur +Derozerays' account, which he was in the habit of paying him every year +about midsummer. + +She succeeded at first in putting off Lheureux. At last he lost +patience; he was being sued; his capital was out, and unless he got some +in he should be forced to take back all the goods she had received. + +"Oh, very well, take them!" said Emma. + +"I was only joking," he replied; "the only thing I regret is the whip. +My word! I'll ask monsieur to return it to me." + +"No, no!" she said. + +"Ah! I've got you!" thought Lheureux. + +And, certain of his discovery, he went out repeating to himself in an +undertone, and with his usual low whistle: + +"Good! we shall see! we shall see!" + +She was thinking how to get out of this when the servant coming in put +on the mantelpiece a small roll of blue paper "from Monsieur +Derozerays." Emma pounced upon and opened it. It contained fifteen +napoleons; it was the account. She heard Charles on the stairs; threw +the gold to the back of her drawer, and took out the key. + +Three days after Lheureux reappeared. + +"I have an arrangement to suggest to you," he said. "If, instead of the +sum agreed on, you would take----" + +"Here it is," she said, placing fourteen napoleons in his hand. + +The tradesman was astounded. Then, to conceal his disappointment, he was +profuse in apologies and proffers of service, all of which Emma +declined; then she remained a few moments fingering in the pocket of her +apron the two five-franc pieces that he had given her in change. She +promised herself she would economise in order to pay back later on. +"Pshaw!" she thought, "he won't think about it again." + + * * * + +Besides the riding-whip with its silver-gilt handle, Rodolphe had +received a seal with the motto _Amor nel cor_; furthermore, a scarf for +a muffler, and, finally, a cigar-case exactly like the Viscount's, that +Charles had formerly picked up in the road, and that Emma had kept. +These presents, however, humiliated him; he refused several; she +insisted, and he ended by obeying, thinking her tyrannical and +over-exacting. + +Then she had strange ideas. + +"When midnight strikes," she said, "you must think of me." + +And if he confessed that he had not thought of her, there were floods of +reproaches that always ended with the eternal question: + +"Do you love me?" + +"Why, of course I love you," he answered. + +"A great deal?" + +"Certainly!" + +"You haven't loved any others?" + +"Did you think you'd got a virgin?" he exclaimed laughing. + +Emma wept, and he tried to console her, adorning his protestations with +puns. + +"Oh," she went on, "I love you! I love you so that I could not live +without you, do you see? There are times when I long to see you again, +when I am torn by all the anger of love. I ask myself, where is he? +Perhaps he is talking to other women. They smile upon him; he +approaches. Oh no! no one else pleases you. There are some more +beautiful, but I love you best. I know how to love best. I am your +servant, your concubine! You are my king, my idol! You are good, you are +beautiful, you are clever, you are strong!" + +He had so often heard these things said that they did not strike him as +original. Emma was like all his mistresses; and the charm of novelty, +gradually falling away like a garment, laid bare the eternal monotony of +passion, that has always the same forms and the same language. He did +not distinguish, this man of so much experience, the difference of +sentiment beneath the sameness of expression. Because lips libertine +and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little in the +candour of hers; exaggerated speeches hiding mediocre affections must be +discounted; as if the fulness of the soul did not sometimes overflow in +the emptiest metaphors, since no one can ever give the exact measure of +his needs, nor of his conceptions, nor of his sorrows; and since human +speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to +make bears dance when we long to move the stars. + +But with that superior critical judgment that belongs to him, who, in no +matter what circumstance, holds back, Rodolphe saw other delights to be +got out of this love. He thought all modesty in the way. He treated her +quite _sans façon_. He made of her something supple and corrupt. Hers was +an idiotic sort of attachment, full of admiration for him, of +voluptuousness for her, a beatitude that benumbed her; her soul sank +into this drunkenness, shrivelled up, drowned in it, like Clarence in +his butt of Malmsey. + +By the mere effect of her love Madame Bovary's manners changed. Her +looks grew bolder, her speech more free; she even committed the +impropriety of walking out with Monsieur Rodolphe, a cigarette in her +mouth, "as if to defy the people." At last those who still doubted +doubted no longer when one day they saw her getting out of the +"Hirondelle" her waist squeezed into a waistcoat like a man; and Madame +Bovary senior, who, after a fearful scene with her husband, had taken +refuge at her son's, was not the least scandalised of the women-folk. +Many other things displeased her. First, Charles had not attended to +her advice about the forbidding of novels; then the "ways of the house" +annoyed her; she allowed herself to make some remarks, and there were +quarrels, especially one on account of Félicité. + +Madame Bovary senior, the evening before, passing along the passage, had +surprised her in company of a man--a man with a brown collar, about +forty years old, who, at the sound of her step, had quickly escaped +through the kitchen. Then Emma began to laugh, but the good lady grew +angry, declaring that unless morals were to be laughed at one ought to +look after those of one's servants. + +"Where were you brought up?" asked the daughter-in-law, with so +impertinent a look that Madame Bovary asked her if she were not perhaps +defending her own case. + +"Leave the room!" said the young woman, springing up with a bound. + +"Emma! Mamma!" cried Charles, trying to reconcile them. + +But both had fled in their exasperation. Emma was stamping her feet as +she repeated-- + +"Oh! what manners! What a peasant!" + +He ran to his mother; she was beside herself. She stammered: + +"She is an insolent, giddy-headed thing, or perhaps worse!" + +And she was for leaving at once if the other did not apologize. + +So Charles went back again to his wife and implored her to give way; he +knelt to her; she ended by saying-- + +"Very well! I'll go to her." + +And in fact she held out her hand to her mother-in-law with the dignity +of a marchioness as she said: + +"Excuse me, madame." + +Then having gone up again to her room, she threw herself flat on her bed +and cried there like a child, her face buried in the pillow. + +She and Rodolphe had agreed that in the event of anything extraordinary +occurring, she should fasten a small piece of white paper to the blind, +so that if by chance he happened to be in Yonville, he could hurry to +the lane behind the house. Emma made the signal; she had been waiting +three-quarters of an hour when she suddenly caught sight of Rodolphe at +the corner of the market. She felt tempted to open the window and call +him, but he had already disappeared. She fell back in despair. + +Soon, however, it seemed to her that some one was walking on the +pavement. It was he, no doubt. She went downstairs, crossed the yard. He +was there outside. She threw herself into his arms. + +"Do take care!" he said. + +"Ah! if you knew!" she replied. + +And she began telling him everything, hurriedly, disjointedly, +exaggerating the facts, inventing many, and so prodigal of parentheses +that he understood nothing of it. + +"Come, my poor angel, courage! Be comforted! be patient!" + +"But I have been patient; I have suffered for four years. A love like +ours ought to show itself in the face of heaven. They torture me! I can +bear it no longer! Save me!" + +She clung to Rodolphe. Her eyes, full of tears, flashed like flames +beneath a wave; her breast heaved; he had never loved her so much, so +that he lost his head and said: + +"What is it? What do you wish?" + +"Take me away," she cried, "carry me off! Oh, I entreat you!" + +And she threw herself upon his mouth, as if to seize there the +unexpected consent it breathed forth in a kiss. + +"But----" Rodolphe resumed. + +"What?" + +"Your little girl!" + +She reflected a few moments, then replied-- + +"We will take her! It can't be helped!" + +"What a woman!" he said to himself, watching her as she went. For she +had run into the garden. Some one was calling her. + +On the following days Madame Bovary senior was much surprised at the +change in her daughter-in-law. Emma, in fact, was showing herself more +docile, and even carried her deference so far as to ask for a recipe for +pickling gherkins. + +Was it the better to deceive them both? Or did she wish by a sort of +voluptuous stoicism to feel the more profoundly the bitterness of the +things she was about to leave? + +But she paid no heed to them; on the contrary, she lived as if lost in +the anticipated delight of her coming happiness. It was an eternal +subject for conversation with Rodolphe. She leant on his shoulder +murmuring-- + +"Ah! when we are in the mail-coach! Do you think about it? Can it be? It +seems to me that the moment I feel the carriage start, it will be as if +we were rising in a balloon as if we were setting out for the clouds. +Do you know that I count the hours? And you?" + +Never had Madame Bovary been so beautiful as at this period; she had +that indefinable beauty that results from joy, from enthusiasm, from +success, and that is only the harmony of temperament with circumstances. +Her desires, her sorrows, the experience of pleasure, and her ever-young +illusions, that had, as soil and rain and winds and the sun make flowers +grow, gradually developed her, and she at length blossomed forth in all +the plenitude of her nature. Her eyelids seemed chiselled expressly for +her long amorous looks in which the pupil disappeared, while a strong +inspiration expanded her delicate nostrils and raised the fleshy corner +of her lips, shaded in the light by a little black down. One would have +thought that an artist apt in conception had arranged the curls of hair +upon her neck; they fell in a thick mass, negligently, and with the +changing chances of their adultery, that unbound them every day. Her +voice now took more mellow inflections, her figure also; something +subtle and penetrating escaped even from the folds of her gown and from +the line of her foot. Charles, as when they were first married, thought +her delicious and quite irresistible. + +When he came home in the middle of the night, he did not dare to wake +her. The porcelain night-light threw a round trembling gleam upon the +ceiling, and the drawn curtains of the little cot formed, as it were, a +white hut standing out in the shade, and by the bedside Charles looked +at them. He seemed to hear the light breathing of his child. She would +grow big now; every season would bring rapid progress. He already saw +her coming from school as the day drew in, laughing, with ink-stains on +her jacket, and carrying her basket on her arm. Then she would have to +be sent to a boarding-school; that would cost much; how was it to be +done? Then he reflected. He thought of hiring a small farm in the +neighborhood, that he would superintend every morning on his way to his +patients. He would save up what he brought in; he would put it in the +savings-bank. Then he would buy shares somewhere, no matter where; +besides, his practice would increase; he counted upon that, for he +wanted Berthe to be well-educated, to be accomplished, to learn to play +the piano. Ah! how pretty she would be later on when she was fifteen, +when, resembling her mother, she would, like her, wear large straw hats +in the summer-time; from a distance they would be taken for two sisters. +He pictured her to himself working in the evening by their side beneath +the light of the lamp; she would embroider him slippers; she would look +after the house; she would fill all the home with her charm and her +gaiety. At last, they would think of her marriage; they would find her +some good young fellow with a steady business; he would make her happy; +this would last for ever. + +Emma was not asleep; she pretended to be; and while he dozed off by her +side she awakened to other dreams. + +To the gallop of four horses she was carried away for a week towards a +new land, whence they would return no more. They went on and on, their +arms entwined, without a word. Often from the top of a mountain there +suddenly glimpsed some splendid city with domes, and bridges, and ships, +forests of citron trees, and cathedrals of white marble, on whose +pointed steeples were storks' nests. They went at a walking-pace because +of the great flag-stones, and on the ground there were bouquets of +flowers, offered you by women dressed in red bodices. They heard the +chiming of bells, the neighing of mules, together with the murmur of +guitars and the noise of fountains, whose rising spray refreshed heaps +of fruit arranged like a pyramid at the foot of pale statues that smiled +beneath playing waters. And then, one night they came to a fishing +village, where brown nets were drying in the wind along the cliffs and +in front of the huts. It was there that they would stay; they would live +in a low, flat-roofed house, shaded by a palm-tree, in the heart of a +gulf, by the sea. They would row in gondolas, swing in hammocks, and +their existence would be easy and large as their silk gowns, warm and +star-spangled as the nights they would contemplate. However, in the +immensity of this future that she conjured up, nothing special stood +forth; the days, all magnificent, resembled each other like waves; and +it swayed in the horizon, infinite, harmonized, azure, and bathed in +sunshine. But the child began to cough in her cot or Bovary snored more +loudly, and Emma did not fall asleep till morning, when the dawn +whitened the window, and when little Justin was already in the square +taking down the shutters of the chemist's shop. + +She had sent for Monsieur Lheureux, and had said to him-- + +"I want a cloak--a large lined cloak with a deep collar." + +"You are going on a journey?" he asked. + +"No; but--never mind. I may count on you, may I not, and quickly?" + +He bowed. + +"Besides, I shall want," she went on, "a trunk--not too heavy--handy." + +"Yes, yes, I understand. About three feet by a foot and a half, as they +are being made just now." + +"And a travelling bag." + +"Decidedly," thought Lheureux, "there's a row on here." + +"And," said Madame Bovary, taking her watch from her belt, "take this; +you can pay yourself out of it." + +But the tradesman cried out that she was wrong; they knew one another; +did he doubt her? What childishness! + +She insisted, however, on his taking at least the chain, and Lheureux +had already put it in his pocket and was going, when she called him +back. + +"You will leave everything at your place. As to the cloak"--she seemed +to be reflecting--"do not bring it either; you can give me the maker's +address, and tell him to have it ready for me." + +It was the next month that they were to run away. She was to leave +Yonville as if she was going on some business to Rouen. Rodolphe would +have booked the seats, procured the passports, and even have written to +Paris in order to have the whole mail-coach reserved for them as far as +Marseilles, where they would buy a carriage, and go on thence without +stopping to Genoa. She would take care to send her luggage to Lheureux', +whence it would be taken direct to the "Hirondelle," so that no one +would have any suspicion. And in all this there never was any allusion +to the child. Rodolphe avoided speaking of her; perhaps he no longer +thought about it. + +He wished to have two more weeks before him to arrange some affairs; +then at the end of a week he wanted two more; then he said he was ill; +next he went on a journey. The month of August passed, and, after all +these delays, they decided that it was to be irrevocably fixed for the +4th September--a Monday. + +At length the Saturday before arrived. + +Rodolphe came in the evening earlier than usual. + +"Everything is ready?" she asked him. + +"Yes." + +Then they walked round a garden-bed, and went to sit down near the +terrace on the curb-stone of the wall. + +"You are sad," said Emma. + +"No; why?" + +And yet he looked at her strangely in a tender fashion. + +"Is it because you are going away?" she went on; "because you are +leaving what is dear to you--your life? Ah! I understand. I have nothing +in the world! You are all to me; so shall I be to you. I will be your +people, your country; I will tend, I will love you!" + +"How sweet you are!" he said, seizing her in his arms. + +"Really!" she said with a voluptuous laugh. "Do you love me? Swear it +then!" + +"Do I love you--love you? I adore you, my love!" + +The moon, full and purple-colored, was rising right out of the earth at +the end of the meadow. She rose quickly between the branches of the +poplars, that hid her here and there like a black curtain pierced with +holes. Then she appeared dazzling with whiteness in the empty heavens +that she lit up, and now sailing more slowly along, let fall upon the +river a great stain that broke up into an infinity of stars; and the +silver sheen seemed to writhe through the very depths like a headless +serpent covered with luminous scales; it also resembled some monster +candelabra all along which sparkled drops of diamonds running together. +The soft night was about them; masses of shadow filled the branches. +Emma, her eyes half-closed, breathed in with deep sighs the fresh wind +that was blowing. They did not speak, lost as they were in the rush of +their reverie. The tenderness of the old days came back to their hearts, +full and silent as the flowing river, with the softness of the perfume +of the syringas, and threw across their memories shadows more immense +and more sombre than those of the still willows that lengthened out over +the grass. Often some night-animal, hedgehog or weasel, setting out on +the hunt, disturbed the lovers, or sometimes they heard a ripe peach +falling all alone from the espalier. + +"Ah! what a lovely night!" said Rodolphe. + +"We shall have others," replied Emma; and, as if speaking to herself, +"Yes, it will be good to travel. And yet, why should my heart be so +heavy? Is it dread of the unknown? The effect of habits left? Or +rather----? No; it is the excess of happiness. How weak I am, am I not? +Forgive me!" + +"There is still time!" he cried. "Reflect! perhaps you may repent!" + +"Never!" she cried impetuously. And coming closer to him: "What ill +could come to me? There is no desert, no precipice, no ocean I would not +traverse with you. The longer we live together the more it will be like +an embrace, every day closer, more heart to heart. There will be nothing +to trouble us, no care, no obstacle. We shall be alone, all to ourselves +eternally. Oh, speak! Answer me!" + +At regular intervals he answered, "Yes--Yes--" She had passed her hands +through his hair, and she repeated in a childlike voice, despite the big +tears which were falling, "Rodolphe! Rodolphe! Ah! Rodolphe! dear little +Rodolphe!" + +Midnight struck. + +"Midnight!" said she. "Come! it is to-morrow! One day more!" + +He rose to go; and as if the movement he made had been the signal for +their flight, Emma said, suddenly, assuming a gay air-- + +"You have the passports?" + +"Yes." + +"You are forgetting nothing?" + +"No." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Certainly." + +"It is at the Hôtel de Provence, is it not, that you will wait for me at +mid-day?" + +He nodded. + +"Till to-morrow then!" said Emma, in a last caress; and she watched him +go. + +He did not turn round. She ran after him, and, leaning over the water's +edge between the bulrushes-- + +"To-morrow!" she cried. + +He was already on the other side of the river and walking fast across +the meadow. + +After a few moments Rodolphe stopped; and when he saw her with her white +gown gradually fade away in the shade like a ghost, he was seized with +such a beating of the heart that he leant against a tree lest he should +fall. + +"What an imbecile I am!" he said with a fearful oath. "No matter! she +was a pretty mistress!" + +And immediately Emma's beauty, with all the pleasures of their love, +came back to him. For a moment he softened; then he rebelled against +her. + +"For, after all," he exclaimed gesticulating, "I can't exile +myself--have a child on my hands." + +He was saying these things to give himself firmness. + +"And besides, the worry, the expense! Ah! no, no, no, no! a thousand +times no! It would have been too stupid." + + + + +XIII. + +DESERTED. + + +No sooner was Rodolphe at home than he sat down quickly at his bureau +under the stag's head that hung as a trophy on the wall. But when he had +the pen between his fingers, he could think of nothing, so that, resting +on his elbows, he began to reflect. Emma seemed to him to have receded +into a far-off past, as if the resolution he had taken had suddenly +placed a distance between them. + +To get back something of her, he fetched from the cupboard at the +bedside an old Rheims biscuit-box, in which he usually kept his letters +from women, and from it came an odor of dry dust and withered roses. +First he saw a handkerchief with pale little spots. It was a +handkerchief of hers. Once when they were walking her nose had bled; he +had forgotten it. Near it, chipped at all the corners, was a miniature +given him by Emma: her toilette seemed to him pretentious, and her +languishing look in the worst possible taste. Then, from looking at this +image and recalling the memory of its original, Emma's features little +by little grew confused in his remembrance, as if the living and the +painted face, rubbing one against the other, had effaced each other. +Finally, he read some of her letters; they were full of explanations +relating to their journey, short, technical, and urgent, like business +notes. He wanted to see the long ones again, those of old times. In +order to find them at the bottom of the box, Rodolphe disturbed all the +others, and mechanically began rummaging amidst this mass of papers and +things, finding pell-mell bouquets, garters, a black mask, pins, and +hair--hair! dark and fair, some even, catching in the hinges of the box, +broke when it was opened. + +Thus dallying with his souvenirs, he examined the writing and the style +of the letters, as varied as their orthography. They were tender or +jovial, facetious, melancholy; there were some that asked for love, +others that asked for money. A word recalled faces to him, certain +gestures, the sound of a voice; sometimes, however, he remembered +nothing at all. + +In fact, these women, rushing at once into his thoughts, cramped each +other and lessened, as reduced to a uniform level of love that equalized +them all. So taking handfuls of the mixed-up letters, he amused himself +for some moments with letting them fall in cascades from his right into +his left hand. At last, bored and weary, Rodolphe took back the box to +the cupboard, saying to himself, "What a lot of rubbish!" Which summed +up his opinion; for pleasures, like schoolboys in a school courtyard, +had so trampled upon his heart that no green thing grew there, and that +which passed through it, more heedless than children, did not even, like +them, leave a name carved upon the wall. + +"Come," said he, "let's begin." + +He wrote-- + + "Courage, Emma! courage! I would not bring misery into your life." + +"After all, that's true," thought Rodolphe. "I am acting in her +interest; I am honest." + + "Have you carefully weighed your resolution? Do you know to what an + abyss I was dragging you, poor angel? No, you do not, do you? You + were coming confident and fearless, believing in happiness in the + future. Ah! unhappy that we are--insensate!" + +Rodolphe stopped here to think of some good excuse. + +"If I told her all my fortune is lost? No! Besides that would stop +nothing. It would all have to be begun over again later on. As if one +could make women like that listen to reason!" He reflected, then went +on-- + + "I shall not forget you, oh! believe it; and I shall ever have a + profound devotion for you; but some day, sooner or later, this + ardour (such is the fate of human things) would have grown less, no + doubt. Lassitude would have come to us, and who knows if I should + not even have had the atrocious pain of witnessing your remorse, of + sharing it myself, since I should have been its cause? The mere + idea of the grief that would come to you tortures me, Emma. Forget + me! Why did I ever know you? Why were you so beautiful? Is it my + fault? O my God! No, no! accuse only fate." + +"That's a word that always tells," he said to himself. + + "Ah! if you had been one of those frivolous women that one sees, + certainly I might, through egotism, have made an experiment, in + that case without danger for you. But that delicious exaltation, at + once your charm and your torment, has prevented you from + understanding, adorable woman that you are, the falseness of our + future position. Nor had I reflected upon this at first, and I + rested in the shade of that ideal happiness as beneath that of the + manchineel tree, without foreseeing the consequences." + +"Perhaps she'll think I'm giving it up from avarice. Ah, well! so much +the worse; it must be stopped!" + + "The world is cruel, Emma. Wherever we might have gone, it would + have persecuted us. You would have had to put up with indiscreet + questions, calumny, contempt, insult, perhaps. Insult to you! Oh! + And I, who would place you on a throne! I who bear with me your + memory as a talisman! For I am going to punish myself by exile for + all the ill I have done you. I am going away. Whither I know not. I + am mad. Adieu! Be good always. Preserve the memory of the + unfortunate who has lost you. Teach my name to your child; let her + repeat it in her prayers." + +The wicks of the candles flickered. Rodolphe got up to shut the window, +and when he had sat down again-- + +"I think it's all right. Ah! and this for fear she should come and hunt +me up." + + "I shall be far away when you read these sad lines, for I have + wished to flee as quickly as possible to shun the temptation of + seeing you again. No weakness! I shall return, and perhaps later we + shall talk together very coldly of our old love. Adieu!" + +And there was a last 'adieu' divided into two words: "A Dieu!" which he +thought in very excellent taste. + +"Now how am I to sign?" he said to himself. "Yours devotedly?' No! 'Your +friend?' Yes, that's it." + + "YOUR FRIEND." + +He re-read his letter. He considered it very good. + +"Poor little woman!" he thought with emotion. "She'll think me harder +than a rock. There ought to have been some tears on this; but I can't +cry; it isn't my fault." Then, having emptied some water into a glass, +Rodolphe dipped his finger into it, and let a big drop fall on the +paper, that made a pale stain on the ink. Then looking for a seal, he +came upon the one "_Amor nel cor_." + +"That doesn't at all fit in with the circumstances. Pshaw! never mind!" + +After which he smoked three pipes and went to bed. + +The next day when he was up (at about two o'clock--he had slept late), +Rodolphe had a basket of apricots picked. He put his letter at the +bottom under some vine leaves, and at once ordered Girard, his +ploughman, to take it with care to Madame Bovary. He made use of this +means for corresponding with her, sending according to the season +fruits or game. + +"If she asks after me," he said, "you will tell her that I have gone on +a journey. You must give the basket to her herself, into her own hands. +Get along and take care!" + +Girard put on his new blouse, knotted his handkerchief round the +apricots, and, walking with great heavy steps in his thick iron-bound +galoshes, made his way to Yonville. + +Madame Bovary, when he got to her house was arranging a bundle of linen +on the kitchen-table with Félicité. + +"Here," said the ploughboy, "is something for you from master." + +She was seized with apprehension, and as she sought in her pocket for +some coppers, she looked at the peasant with haggard eyes, while he +himself looked at her with amazement, not understanding how such a +present could so move any one. At last he went out. Félicité remained. +Emma could bear it no longer; she ran into the sitting-room as if to +take the apricots there, overturned the basket, tore away the leaves, +found the letter, opened it, and, as if some fearful fire were behind +her, she flew to her room terrified. + +Charles was there; she saw him; he spoke to her; she heard nothing, and +she went on quickly up the stairs, breathless, distraught, dumb, and +ever holding this horrible piece of paper, that crackled between her +fingers like a plate of sheet-iron. On the second floor she stopped +before the attic-door, that was closed. + +Then she tried to calm herself; she recalled the letter; she must finish +it; she did not dare to. And where? How? She would be seen! "Ah, no! +here," she thought, "I shall be all right." + +Emma pushed open the door and went in. + +The slates threw straight down a heavy heat that gripped her temples, +stifled her; she dragged herself to the closed garret-window. She drew +back the bolt, and the dazzling light burst in with a leap. + +Opposite, beyond the roofs, stretched the open country until it was lost +to the sight. Underneath her, the village square was empty; the stones +of the pavement glittered, the weathercocks on the houses were +motionless. At the corner of the street, from a lower story, rose a kind +of humming with strident modulations. It was Binet turning. + +She leant against the embrasure of the window, and re-read the letter +with angry sneers. But the more she fixed her attention upon it, the +more confused were her ideas. She saw him again, heard him, encircled +him with her arms, and the throbs of her heart, that beat against her +breast like blows of a sledge-hammer, grew faster and faster, with +uneven intervals. She looked about her with the wish that the earth +might crumble into pieces. Why not end it all? What restrained her? She +was free. She advanced, looked at the paving-stones, saying to herself, +"Come! come!" + +The luminous ray that came straight up from below drew the weight of her +body towards the abyss. It seemed to her that the ground of the +oscillating square went up the walls, and that the floor dipped on end +like a tossing boat. She was right at the edge, almost hanging, +surrounded by vast space. The blue of the heavens suffused her, the air +was whirling in her hollow head; she had but to yield, to let herself +be taken; and the humming of the lathe never ceased, like an angry voice +calling her. + +"Emma! Emma!" cried Charles. + +She stopped. + +"Wherever are you? Come!" + +The thought that she had just escaped from death almost made her faint +with terror. She closed her eyes; then she shivered at the touch of a +hand on her sleeve; it was Félicité. + +"Master is waiting for you, madame; the soup is on the table." + +And she had to go down to sit at table. + +She tried to eat. The food choked her. Then she unfolded her napkin as +if to examine the darns, and she really thought of applying herself to +this work, counting the threads in the linen. Suddenly the remembrance +of the letter returned to her. How had she lost it? Where could she find +it? But she felt such weariness of spirit that she could not even invent +a pretext for leaving the table. Then she became a coward; she was +afraid of Charles; he knew all, that was certain! Indeed he pronounced +these words in a strange manner: + +"We are not likely to see Monsieur Rodolphe soon again, it seems." + +"Who told you?" she said, shuddering. + +"Who told me!" he replied, rather astonished at her abrupt tone. "Why, +Girard, whom I met just now at the door of the Café-Français. He has +gone on a journey, or is to go." + +She gave a sob. + +"What surprises you in that? He absents himself like that from time to +time for a change, and, _ma foi_, I think he's right, when one has a +fortune and is a bachelor. Besides, he has jolly times, has our friend. +He's a bit of a rake. Monsieur Langlois told me--" + +He stopped for propriety's sake because the servant came in. She put +back into the basket the apricots scattered on the sideboard. Charles, +without noticing his wife's color, had them brought to him, took one, +and bit into it. + +"Ah! perfect!" said he; "just taste!" + +And he handed her the basket, which she put away from her gently. + +"Do just smell! What an odor!" he remarked, passing it under her nose +several times. + +"I am choking," she cried, leaping up. But by an effort of will the +spasm passed; then-- + +"It is nothing," she said, "it is nothing! It is nervousness. Sit down +and go on eating." For she dreaded lest he should begin questioning her, +attending to her, that she should not be left alone. + +Charles, to obey her, sat down again, and he spat the stones of the +apricots into his hands, afterwards putting them on his plate. + +Suddenly a blue tilbury passed across the square at a rapid trot. Emma +uttered a cry and fell back rigid to the ground. + +In fact, Rodolphe, after many reflections, had decided to set out for +Rouen. Now, as from La Huchette to Buchy there is no other way than by +Yonville, he had to go through the village, and Emma had recognized him +by the rays of the lanterns, which like lightning flashed through the +twilight. + +The chemist, at the tumult which broke out in the house, ran thither. +The table with all the plates was upset; sauce, meat, knives, the salt, +and cruet-stand were strewn over the room; Charles was calling for +help; Berthe, scared, was crying; and Félicité, whose hands trembled, +was unlacing her mistress, whose whole body shivered convulsively. + +"I'll run to my laboratory for some aromatic vinegar," said the chemist. + +Then as she opened her eyes on smelling the bottle: + +"I was sure of it," he remarked; "that would wake any dead person for +you!" + +"Speak to us," said Charles; "collect yourself; it is I--your Charles, +who loves you. Do you know me? See! here is your little girl! Oh, kiss +her!" + +The child stretched out her arms to her mother to cling to her neck. But +turning away her head, Emma said in a broken voice-- + +"No, no! no one!" + +She fainted again. They carried her to her bed. She lay there stretched +at full length, her lips apart, her eyelids closed, her hands open, +motionless, and white as a waxen image. Two streams of tears flowed from +her eyes and fell slowly upon the pillow. + +Charles, standing up, was at the back of the alcove, and the chemist, +near him, maintained that meditative silence that is becoming on the +serious occasions of life. + +"Do not be uneasy," he said, touching his elbow; "I think the paroxysm +is past." + +"Yes, she is resting a little now," answered Charles, watching her +sleep. "Poor girl! poor girl! She has gone off now!" + +Then Homais asked how the accident had come about. Charles answered that +she had been taken ill suddenly while she was eating some apricots. + +"Extraordinary!" continued the chemist. "But it might be that the +apricots had brought on the syncope. Some natures are so sensitive to +certain smells; and it would even be a very fine question to study both +in its pathological and physiological relation. The priests know the +importance of it, they who have introduced aromatics into all their +ceremonies. It is to stupefy the senses and to bring on ecstasies--a +thing, moreover, very easy in persons of the weaker sex, who are more +delicate than the other. Some are cited who faint at the smell of burnt +hartshorn, of new bread--" + +"Take care; you'll wake her!" said Bovary in a low voice. + +"And not only," the chemist went on, "are human beings subject to such +anomalies, but animals also. Thus you are not ignorant of the singularly +aphrodisiac effect produced by the _Nepeta cataria_, vulgarly called +cat-mint, on the feline race; and, on the other hand, to quote an +example whose authenticity I can answer for, Bridaux (one of my old +comrades, at present established in the Rue Malpalu) possesses a dog +that falls into convulsions as soon as you hold out a snuff-box to him. +He often even makes the experiment before his friends at his +summer-house at Guillaume Wood. Would any one believe that a simple +sternutation could produce such ravages on a quadrupedal organism? It is +extremely curious, is it not?" + +"Yes," said Charles, who was not listening to him. + +"This shows us," went on the other, smiling with benign +self-sufficiency, "the innumerable irregularities of the nervous system. +With regard to madame, she has always seemed to me, I confess, very +susceptible. And so I should by no means recommend to you, my dear +friend, any of those so-called remedies that, under the pretence of +attacking the symptoms, attack the constitution. No; no useless +physicking! Diet, that is all; sedatives, emollients, dulcification. +Then, don't you think that perhaps her imagination should be worked +upon?" + +"In what way? How?" said Bovary. + +"Ah! that is it. Such is indeed the question. 'That is the question,' as +I lately read in a newspaper." + +But Emma, awaking, cried out-- + +"The letter! the letter!" + +They thought she was delirious; and she was by midnight. Brain-fever had +set in. + +For forty-three days Charles did not leave her. He gave up all his +patients; he no longer went to bed; he was constantly feeling her pulse, +putting on sinapisms and cold-water compresses. He sent Justin as far as +Neufchâtel for ice; the ice melted on the way; he sent him back again. +He called Monsieur Canivet into consultation; he sent for Dr. Larivière, +his old master, from Rouen; he was in despair. What alarmed him most was +Emma's prostration, for she did not speak, did not listen, did not even +seem to suffer, as if her body and soul were both resting together after +all their troubles. + +About the middle of October she could sit up in bed supported by +pillows. Charles wept when he saw her eat her first bread-and-jelly. Her +strength returned to her; she got up for a few hours of an afternoon, +and one day, when she felt better, he tried to take her, leaning on his +arm, for a walk round the garden. The sand of the paths was +disappearing beneath the dead leaves; she walked slowly, dragging along +her slippers, and leaning against Charles's shoulder. She smiled all the +time. + +They went thus to the bottom of the garden near the terrace. She drew +herself up slowly, shading her eyes with her hand to look. She looked +far off, as far as she could, but on the horizon were only great +bonfires of grass smoking on the hills. + +"You will tire yourself, my darling!" said Bovary. And pushing her +gently to make her go into the arbour, "Sit down on this seat; you'll be +comfortable." + +"Oh! no; not there!" she said in a faltering voice. + +She was seized with giddiness, and from that evening her illness +recommenced, with a more uncertain character, it is true, and more +complex symptoms. Now she suffered in her heart, then in the chest, the +head, the limbs; she had vomitings, in which Charles thought he saw the +first signs of cancer. + +And besides this, the poor fellow was worried about money matters. + + + + +XIV. + +RELIGIOUS FERVOR. + + +To begin with, he did not know how he could pay Monsieur Homais for all +the physic supplied by him, and though, as a medical man, he was not +obliged to pay for it, he nevertheless blushed a little at such an +obligation. Then the expenses of the household, now that the servant was +mistress, became terrible. Bills rained in upon the house; the tradesmen +grumbled; Monsieur Lheureux especially harassed him. In fact, at the +height of Emma's illness, the latter, taking advantage of the +circumstances to make his bill larger, had hurriedly brought the cloak, +the travelling-bag, two trunks instead of one, and a number of other +things. It was very well for Charles to say he did not want them. The +tradesman answered arrogantly that these articles had been ordered, and +that he would not take them back; besides, it would vex madame in her +convalescence; the doctor had better think it over; in short, he was +resolved to sue him rather than give up his rights and take back his +goods. Charles subsequently ordered them to be sent back to the shop. +Félicité forgot; he had other things to attend to; then thought no more +about them. Monsieur Lheureux returned to the charge, and, by turns +threatening and whining, so managed that Bovary ended by signing a bill +at six months. But hardly had he signed this bill than a bold idea +occurred to him: it was to borrow a thousand francs from Lheureux. So, +with an embarrassed air, he asked if it were possible to get them, +adding that it would be for a year, at any interest he wished. Lheureux +ran off to his shop, brought back the money and dictated another bill, +by which Bovary undertook to pay to his order on the 1st of September +next the sum of one thousand and seventy francs, which, with the hundred +and eighty already agreed to, made just twelve hundred and fifty, thus +lending at six per cent, in addition to one-fourth for commission; and +the things bringing him in a good third at the least, this ought in +twelve months to give him a profit of a hundred and thirty francs. He +hoped that the business would not stop there; that the bills would not +be paid; that they would be renewed; and that his poor little money, +having thriven at the doctor's as at a hospital, would come back to him +one day considerably more plump, and fat enough to burst his bag. + +Everything, moreover, succeeded with him. He was adjudicator for a +supply of cider to the hospital at Neufchâtel; Monsieur Guillaumin +promised him some shares in the turf-pits of Gaumesnil, and he dreamt of +establishing a new diligence service between Arcueil and Rouen, which no +doubt would not be long in ruining the ramshackle van of the "Lion +d'Or," and that, travelling faster, at a cheaper rate, and carrying more +luggage, would thus put into his hands the whole commerce of Yonville. + +Charles several times asked himself by what means he should next year be +able to pay back so much money. He reflected, imagined expedients, such +as applying to his father or selling something. But his father would be +deaf, and he--he had nothing to sell. Then he foresaw such worries that +he quickly dismissed so disagreeable a subject of meditation from his +mind. He reproached himself with forgetting Emma, as if, all his +thoughts belonging to this woman, it was robbing her of something not to +be constantly thinking of her. + +The winter was severe, Madame Bovary's convalescence slow. When it was +fine they wheeled her armchair to the window that overlooked the +square, for she now had an antipathy to the garden, and the blinds on +that side were always down. She wished the horse to be sold; what she +formerly liked now displeased her. All her ideas seemed to be limited to +the care of herself. She stayed in bed taking little meals, rang for the +servant to inquire about her gruel or to chat with her. The snow on the +market-roof threw a white, still light into the room; then the rain +began to fall; and Emma waited daily with a mind full of eagerness for +the inevitable return of some trifling events which nevertheless had no +relation to her. The most important was the arrival of the "Hirondelle" +in the evening. Then the landlady shouted out, and other voices +answered, while Hippolyte's lantern, as he fetched the boxes from the +boot, was like a star in the darkness. At mid-day Charles came in; then +he went out again; next she took some beef-tea, and towards five +o'clock, as the day drew in, the children coming back from school, +dragging their wooden shoes along the pavement, knocked the clapper of +the shutters with their rulers one after the other. + +It was at this hour that Monsieur Bournisien came to see her. He +inquired after her health, gave her news, exhorted her to religion in a +coaxing little gossip that was not without its charm. The mere thought +of his cassock comforted her. + +One day, when at the height of her illness, she had thought herself +dying, and had asked for the communion; and, while they were making the +preparations in her room for the sacrament, while they were turning the +night-table covered with sirups into an altar, and while Félicité was +strewing dahlia flowers on the floor, Emma felt some power passing over +her that freed her from her pains, from all perception, from all +feeling. Her body, relieved, no longer thought; another life was +beginning; it seemed to her that her being, mounting toward God, would +be annihilated in that love like a burning incense that melts into +vapour. The bed-clothes were sprinkled with holy water, the priest drew +from the holy pyx the white wafer; and it was fainting with a celestial +joy that she put out her lips to accept the body of the Saviour +presented to her. The curtains of the alcove floated gently round her +like clouds, and the rays of the two tapers burning on the night-table +seemed to shine like dazzling halos. Then she let her head fall back, +fancying she heard in space the music of seraphic harps, and perceived +in an azure sky, on a golden throne in the midst of saints holding green +palms, God the Father, resplendent with majesty, who with a sign sent to +earth angels with wings of fire to carry her away in their arms. + +This splendid vision dwelt in her memory as the most beautiful thing +that it was possible to dream, so that now she strove to recall her +sensation, that still lasted, however, but in a less exclusive fashion +and with a deeper sweetness. Her soul, tortured by pride, at length +found rest in Christian humility, and, tasting the joy of weakness, she +saw within herself the destruction of her will, that must have left a +wide entrance for the inroads of heavenly grace. There existed, then, in +the place of happiness, still greater joys,--another love beyond all +loves, without pause and without end, one that would grow eternally! She +saw amid the illusions of her hope a state of purity floating above the +earth mingling with heaven, to which she aspired. She wanted to become a +saint. She bought chaplets and wore amulets; she wished to have in her +room, by the side of her bed, a reliquary set in emeralds that she might +kiss it every evening. + +The curé marvelled at this humour, although Emma's religion, he thought, +might, from its fervour, end by touching on heresy, extravagance. But +not being much versed in these matters, as soon as they went beyond a +certain limit he wrote to Monsieur Boulard, bookseller to Monsignor, to +send him "something good for a lady who was very clever." The +bookseller, with as much indifference as if he had been sending off +hardware to niggers, packed up, pell-mell, everything that was then the +fashion in the pious book trade. There were little manuals in questions +and answers, pamphlets of aggressive tone after the manner of Monsieur +de Maistre, and certain novels in rose-coloured bindings and with a +honied style, manufactured by troubadour seminarists or penitent +blue-stockings. There were the "Think of it; the Man of the World at +Mary's Feet, by Monsieur de * * *, _décoré_ with many Orders;" "The +Errors of Voltaire, for the Use of the Young," &c. + +Madame Bovary's mind was not yet sufficiently clear to apply herself +seriously to anything; moreover, she began this reading in too much +hurry. She grew provoked at the doctrines of religion; the arrogance of +the polemic writings displeased her by their inveteracy in attacking +people she did not know; and the secular stories, relieved with +religion, seemed to her written in such ignorance of the world, that +they insensibly estranged her from the truths for whose proof she was +looking. Nevertheless, she persevered; and when the volume slipped from +her hands, she fancied herself seized with the finest Catholic +melancholy that an ethereal soul could conceive. + +As for the memory of Rodolphe, she had thrust it back to the bottom of +her heart, and it remained there more solemn and more motionless than a +king's mummy in a catacomb. An exhalation escaped from this embalmed +love, that, penetrating through everything, perfumed with tenderness the +immaculate atmosphere in which she longed to live. When she knelt on her +Gothic prie-Dieu, she addressed to the Lord the same suave words that +she had murmured formerly to her lover in the outpourings of adultery. +It was to make faith come; but no delights descended from the heavens, +and she arose with tired limbs and with a vague feeling of a gigantic +dupery. + +This searching after faith, she thought, was only one merit the more, +and in the pride of her devoutness Emma compared herself to those grand +ladies of long ago whose glory she had dreamed of over a portrait of La +Vallière, and who, trailing with so much majesty the lace-trimmed +trains of their long gowns, retired into solitudes to shed at the feet +of Christ all the tears of hearts that life had wounded. + +Then she gave herself up to excessive charity. She sewed clothes for the +poor, she sent wood to women in childbed; and Charles one day, on coming +home, found three good-for-nothings in the kitchen seated at the table +eating soup. She had her little girl, whom during her illness her +husband had sent back to the nurse, brought home. She wanted to teach +her to read; even when Berthe cried, she was not vexed. She had made up +her mind to resignation, to universal indulgence. Her language about +everything was full of ideal expressions. She said to her child, "Is +your stomach-ache better, my angel?" + +Madame Bovary senior found nothing to censure except perhaps this mania +of knitting jackets for orphans instead of mending her own house-linen; +but, harassed with domestic quarrels, the good woman took pleasure in +this quiet house, and she even staid there till after Easter, to escape +the sarcasms of old Bovary, who never failed on Good Friday to order +chitterlings. + +Besides the companionship of her mother-in-law, who strengthened her a +little by the rectitude of her judgment and her grave ways, Emma almost +every day had other visitors. These were Madame Langlois, Madame Caron, +Madame Dubreuil, Madame Tuvache, and regularly from two to five o'clock +the excellent Madame Homais, who, for her part, had never believed any +of the tittle-tattle about her neighbor. The little Homais also came to +see her; Justin accompanied them. He went up with them to her bedroom, +and remained standing near the door, motionless and mute. Often even +Madame Bovary, taking no heed of him, began her toilette. She began by +taking out her comb, shaking her head with a quick movement, and when he +for the first time saw all this mass of hair that fell to her knees +unrolling in black ringlets, it was to him, poor child! like a sudden +entrance into something new and strange, whose splendour terrified him. + +Emma, no doubt, did not notice his silent attentions or his timidity. +She had no suspicion that the love vanished from her life was there, +palpitating by her side, beneath that coarse holland shirt, in that +youthful heart open to the emanations of her beauty. Besides, she now +enveloped all things with such indifference, she had words so +affectionate with looks so haughty, such contradictory ways, that one +could no longer distinguish egotism from charity, or corruption from +virtue. One evening, for example, she was angry with the servant, who +had asked to go out, and stammered as she tried to find some pretext. +Then suddenly-- + +"So you love him?" she said. + +And without waiting for any answer from Félicité, who was blushing, she +added, "There! run along; enjoy yourself!" + +In the beginning of spring she had the garden turned up from end to end, +despite Bovary's remonstrances. However, he was glad to see her at last +manifest a wish of any kind. As she grew stronger she displayed more +wilfulness. First, she found occasion to expel Mère Rollet, the nurse, +who during her convalescence had contracted the habit of coming too +often to the kitchen with her two nurslings and her boarder, better off +for teeth than a cannibal. Then she got rid of the Homais family, +successively dismissed all the other visitors, and even frequented +church less assiduously, to the great approval of the chemist, who said +to her in a friendly way-- + +"You were going in a bit for the cassock!" + +As formerly, Monsieur Bournisien dropped in every day when he came out +after catechism class. He preferred staying out of doors to taking the +air "in the grove," as he called the arbour. This was the time when +Charles came home. They were hot; some sweet cider was brought out, and +they drank together to madame's complete restoration. + +Binet was there; that is to say, a little lower down against the terrace +wall, fishing for cray-fish. Bovary invited him to have a drink, and he +thoroughly understood the uncorking of the stone bottles. + +"You must," he said, throwing a satisfied glance all round him, even to +the very extremity of the landscape, "hold the bottle perpendicularly on +the table, and after the strings are cut, press up the cork with little +thrusts, gently, gently, as indeed they do seltzer-water at +restaurants." + +But during his demonstration the cider often spurted right into their +faces, and then the ecclesiastic, with a thick laugh, never missed this +joke-- + +"It's goodness strikes the eye!" + +He was, in fact, a good fellow, and one day he was not even scandalised +at the chemist, who advised Charles to give madame some distraction by +taking her to the theatre at Rouen to hear the illustrious tenor, +Lagardy. Homais, surprised at this silence, wanted to know his opinion, +and the priest declared that he considered music less dangerous for +morals than literature. + +But the chemist took up the defence of letters. The theatre, he +contended, served for railing at prejudices, and, beneath a mask of +pleasure, taught virtue. + +"_Castigat ridendo mores_, Monsieur Bournisien! Thus, consider the +greater part of Voltaire's tragedies; they are cleverly strewn with +philosophical reflections, that make them a very school of morals and +diplomacy for the people." + +"I," said Binet, "once saw a piece called the 'Gamin de Paris,' in which +there was the character of an old general that is really hit off to a T. +He sets down a young swell who had seduced a working girl, who at the +end----" + +"Certainly," continued Homais, "there is bad literature as there is bad +pharmacy, but to condemn in a lump the most important of the fine arts +seems to me a stupidity, a Gothic idea, worthy of the abominable times +that imprisoned Galileo." + +"I know very well," objected the curé, "that there are good works, good +authors. However, if it were only those persons of different sexes +together in a bewitching apartment, decorated with worldly pomp, and +then, those pagan disguises, that rouge, those lights, those effeminate +voices, all this must, in the long run, engender a certain mental +libertinage, give rise to immodest thoughts, and impure temptations. +Such, at any rate, is the opinion of all the Fathers. Finally," he +added, suddenly assuming a mystic tone of voice, while he rolled a pinch +of snuff between his fingers, "if the Church has condemned the theatre, +she must be right; we must submit to her decrees." + +"Why," asked the chemist, "should she excommunicate actors? For formerly +they openly took part in religious ceremonies. Yes, in the middle of +the chancel they acted; they performed a kind of farce called +'Mysteries,' which often offended against the laws of decency." + +The ecclesiastic contented himself with uttering a groan, and the +chemist went on-- + +"It's just as it is in the Bible; for there, you know, are more than one +piquant detail, matters really libidinous!" + +And on a gesture of irritation from Monsieur Bournisien-- + +"Ah! you'll admit that it is not a book to place in the hands of a young +girl, and I should be sorry if Athalie----" + +"But it is the Protestants, and not we," cried the other impatiently, +"who recommend the Bible." + +"No matter," said Homais. "I am surprised that in our days, in this +century of enlightenment, any one should still persist in proscribing an +intellectual relaxation that is inoffensive, moralising, and sometimes +even hygienic; is it not, doctor?" + +"No doubt," replied the doctor carelessly, either because, sharing the +same ideas, he wished to offend no one, or else because he had not any +ideas. + +The conversation seemed at an end when the chemist thought fit to shoot +a Parthian arrow. + +"I've known priests who put on ordinary clothes to go and see dancers +kicking about." + +"Come, come!" said the curé. + +"Ah! I've known some!" And separating the words of his sentence, Homais +repeated, "I--have--known--some!" + +"Well, they did wrong," said Bournisien, resigned to anything. + +"By Jove! they go in for more than that," exclaimed the chemist. + +"Sir!" replied the ecclesiastic, with such angry eyes that Homais was +intimidated by them. + +"I only mean to say," he replied in less brutal a tone, "that toleration +is the surest way to draw people to religion." + +"That is true! that is true!" agreed the good fellow, sitting down again +on his chair. But he stayed only a few moments. + +Then, as soon as he had gone, Monsieur Homais said to the doctor-- + +"That's what I call a cock-fight. I beat him, did you see, in a +way!--Now take my advice. Take madame to the theatre, if it were only +for once in your life, to enrage one of these ravens, hang it! If any +one could take my place, I would accompany you myself. Be quick about +it. Lagardy is only going to give one performance; he's engaged to go to +England at a high salary. From what I hear, he's a regular dog; he's +rolling in money; he's taking three mistresses and a cook along with +him. All these great artists burn the candle at both ends; they require +a dissolute life, that stirs the imagination to some extent. But they +die at the hospital, because they haven't the sense when young to lay +by. Well, a pleasant dinner! Good-bye till to-morrow." + +The idea of the theatre quickly germinated in Bovary's head, for he at +once communicated it to his wife, who at first refused, alleging the +fatigue, the worry, the expense; but, for a wonder, Charles did not give +in, so sure was he that this recreation would be good for her. He saw +nothing to prevent it: his mother had sent them three hundred francs +which he had no longer expected; the current debts were not very large, +and the falling in of Lheureux's bills was still so far off that there +was no need to think about them. Besides, imagining that she was +refusing from delicacy, he insisted the more; so that by dint of +worrying her she at last made up her mind, and the next day at eight +o'clock they set out in the "Hirondelle." + +The chemist, whom nothing whatever kept at Yonville, but who thought +himself bound not to budge from it, sighed as he saw them go. + +"Well, a pleasant journey!" he said to them; "happy mortals that you +are!" + +Then addressing himself to Emma, who was wearing a blue silk gown with +four flounces-- + +"You are as lovely as a Venus. You'll cut a figure at Rouen." + +The diligence stopped at the "Croix-Rouge" in the Place Beauvoisine. It +was the inn that is in every provincial faubourg, with large stables and +small bedrooms, where one sees in the middle of the court chickens +pilfering the oats under the muddy gigs of the commercial travellers;--a +good old house with worm-eaten balconies that creak in the wind on +winter nights, always full of people, noise, and feeding, whose black +tables are sticky with coffee and brandy, the thick windows made yellow +by the flies, the damp napkins stained with cheap wine, and that always +smells of the village, like ploughboys dressed in Sunday-clothes, has a +café on the street, and towards the country-side a kitchen-garden. +Charles at once set out. He muddled up the stage-boxes with the gallery, +the pit with the boxes; asked for explanations, did not understand them; +was sent from the box-office to the acting-manager; came back to the +inn, returned to the theatre, and thus several times traversed the whole +length of the town from the theatre to the boulevard. + +Madame Bovary bought a bonnet, gloves, and a bouquet. The doctor was +much afraid of missing the beginning, and, without having had time to +swallow a plate of soup, they presented themselves at the doors of the +theatre, which were still closed. + + + + +XV. + +A NEW DELIGHT. + + +The crowd was waiting against the wall, symmetrically enclosed between +the balustrades. At the corner of the neighbouring streets huge bills +repeated in quaint letters "Lucia de Lammermoor--Lagardy--Opera--&c." +The weather was fine, the people were hot, perspiration trickled amid +the curls, and handkerchiefs taken from pockets were mopping red +foreheads; and now and again a warm wind that blew from the river gently +stirred the border of the tick awnings hanging from the doors of the +public-houses. A little lower down, however, one was refreshed by a +current of icy air that smelt of tallow, leather, and oil. This was an +exhalation from the Rue des Charrettes, full of large black ware-houses +where they make casks. + +For fear of seeming ridiculous, Emma before going in wished to have a +little stroll in the harbour, and Bovary prudently kept his tickets in +his hand, in the pocket of his trousers, which he pressed against his +stomach. + +Her heart began to beat as soon as she reached the vestibule. She +involuntarily smiled with vanity on seeing the crowd rushing to the +right by the other corridor while she went up the staircase to the +reserved seats. She was as pleased as a child to push with her finger +the large tapestried door. She breathed in with all her might the dusty +smell of the lobbies, and when she was seated in her box she bent +forward with the air of a duchess. + +The theatre was beginning to fill; opera-glasses were taken from their +cases, and the subscribers, catching sight of one another, were bowing. +They came to seek relaxation in the fine arts after the anxieties of +business; but "business" was not forgotten; they still talked cotton, +spirits of wine, or indigo. The heads of old men were to be seen, +inexpressive and peaceful, with their hair and complexions looking like +silver medals tarnished by steam of lead. The young beaux were strutting +about in the pit, showing in the opening of their waistcoats their pink +or apple-green cravats, and Madame Bovary from above admired them +leaning on their canes with golden knobs in the open palm of their +yellow gloves. + +Now the lights of the orchestra were lit, the lustre, let down from the +ceiling, throwing by the glimmering of its facets a sudden gaiety over +the theatre; then the musicians came in one after the other; and first +there was the protracted hubbub of the basses grumbling, violins +squeaking, cornets trumpeting, flutes and flageolets fifing. But three +knocks were heard on the stage, a rolling of drums began, the brass +instruments played some chords, and the curtain rising, discovered a +country-scene. + +It was the cross-roads of a wood, with a fountain shaded by an oak to +the left. Peasants and lords with plaids on their shoulders were singing +a hunting-song together; then a captain suddenly came on, who evoked +the spirit of evil by lifting both his arms to heaven. Another appeared; +they went away, and the hunters started afresh. + +She felt herself transported to the reading of her youth, into the midst +of Walter Scott. She seemed to hear through the mist the sound of the +Scotch bagpipes re-echoing over the heather. Then her remembrance of the +novel helping her to understand the libretto, she followed the story +phrase by phrase, while vague thoughts that came back to her dispersed +at once again with the bursts of music. She gave herself up to the +lullaby of the melodies, and felt all her being vibrate as if the violin +bows were drawn over her nerves. She had not eyes enough to look at the +costumes, the scenery, the actors, the painted trees that shook when any +one walked, and the velvet caps, cloaks, swords--all those imaginary +things that floated amid the harmony as in the atmosphere of another +world. But a young woman stepped forward, throwing a purse to a squire +in green. She was left alone, and the flute was heard like the murmur of +a fountain or the warbling of birds. Lucia attacked her cavatina in G +major bravely. She plained of love; she longed for wings. Emma too, +fleeing from life, would have liked to fly away in an embrace. Suddenly +Edgar-Lagardy appeared. + +He had that splendid pallor that gives something of the majesty of +marble to the ardent races of the South. His vigorous form was tightly +clad in a brown-coloured doublet; a small chiselled poniard hung against +his left thigh, and he cast around laughing looks showing his white +teeth. They said that a Polish princess having heard him sing one night +on the beach at Biarritz, where he mended boats, had fallen in love +with him. She had ruined herself for him. He had deserted her for other +women, and this sentimental celebrity did not fail to enhance his +artistic reputation. The diplomatic mummer took care always to slip into +his advertisements some poetic phrase on the fascination of his person +and the susceptibility of his soul. A fine organ, imperturbable +coolness, more temperament than intelligence, more power of emphasis +than of real singing, made up the charm of this admirable, charlatan +nature, in which there was something of the hairdresser and the +toréador. + +From the first scene he evoked enthusiasm. He pressed Lucia in his arms, +he left her, he came back, he seemed desperate; he had outbursts of +rage, then elegiac gurglings of infinite sweetness, and the notes +escaped from his bare neck full of sobs and kisses. Emma leant forward +to see him, clutching the velvet of the box with her nails. She was +filling her heart with these melodious lamentations that were drawn out +to the accompaniment of the double-basses, like the cries of the +drowning in the tumult of a tempest. She recognized all the intoxication +and the anguish that had almost killed her. The voice of the prima donna +seemed to her to be but echoes of her conscience, and this illusion that +charmed her as some very thing of her own life. But no one on earth had +loved her with such love. He had not wept like Edgar that last moonlit +night when they said, "To-morrow! to-morrow!" The theatre rang with +cheers; they recommenced the entire movement; the lovers spoke of the +flowers on their tomb, of vows, exile, fate, hopes; and when they +uttered the final adieu, Emma gave a sharp cry that mingled with the +vibrations of the last chords. + +"But why," asked Bovary, "does that gentleman persecute her?" + +"No, no!" she answered; "he is her lover!" + +"Yet he vows vengeance on her family, while the other one who came on +before said, 'I love Lucia and she loves me!' Besides, he went off with +her father arm in arm. For he certainly is her father, isn't he--the +ugly little man with a cock's feather in his hat?" + +Despite Emma's explanations, as soon as the recitative duet began in +which Gilbert lays bare his abominable machinations to his master +Ashton, Charles, seeing the false troth-ring that is to deceive Lucia, +thought it was a love-gift sent by Edgar. He confessed, moreover, that +he did not understand the story because of the music, which interfered +very much with the words. + +"What does it matter?" said Emma. "Do be quiet!" + +"Yes, but you know," he went on, leaning against her shoulder, "I like +to understand things." + +"Be quiet! be quiet!" she cried impatiently. + +Lucia advanced, half supported by her women, a wreath of orange blossoms +in her hair, and paler than the white satin of her gown. Emma dreamed of +her marriage-day; she saw herself at home again amid the corn in the +little path as they walked to the church. Oh, why had not she, like this +woman, resisted, implored? She, on the contrary, had been joyous, +without seeing the abyss into which she was throwing herself. Ah! if in +the freshness of her beauty, before the soiling of marriage and the +disillusions of adultery, she could have anchored her life upon some +great, strong heart, then virtue, tenderness, voluptuousness, and duty +blending, she would never have fallen from so high a happiness. But that +happiness, no doubt, was a lie invented for the despair of all desire. +She now knew the smallness of the passions that art exaggerated. So, +striving to divert her thoughts, Emma determined now to see in this +reproduction of her sorrows only a plastic fantasy, well enough to +please the eye, and she even smiled internally with disdainful pity when +at the back of the stage under the velvet hangings a man appeared in a +black cloak. + +His large Spanish hat fell at a gesture he made, and immediately the +instruments and the singers began the sextet. Edgar, flashing with fury, +dominated all the others with his clearer voice; Ashton hurled homicidal +provocations at him in deep notes; Lucia, uttered her shrill plaint, +Arthur, at one side, his modulated tones in the middle register, and the +bass of the minister pealed forth like an organ, while the voices of the +women repeating his words took them up in chorus delightfully. They were +all in a row gesticulating, and anger, vengeance, jealousy, terror, and +stupefaction breathed forth at once from their half-opened mouths. The +outraged lover brandished his naked sword; his guipure ruffle rose with +jerks to the movements of his chest, and he walked from right to left +with long strides, clanking against the boards the silver-gilt spurs of +his soft boots, widening out at the ankles. He, she thought, must have +an inexhaustible love to lavish it upon the crowd with such effusion. +All her small fault-findings faded before the poetry of the part that +absorbed her; and, drawn towards this man by the illusion of the +character, she tried to imagine to herself his life--that life resonant, +extraordinary, splendid, and that might have been hers if fate had +willed it. They would have known one another, loved one another. With +him, through all the kingdoms of Europe she would have travelled from +capital to capital, sharing his fatigues and his pride, picking up the +flowers thrown to him, herself embroidering his costumes. Then each +evening, at the back of a box, behind the golden trellis-work, she would +have drunk in eagerly the expansions of this soul that would have sung +for her alone; from the stage, even as he acted he would have looked at +her. But the mad idea seized her that he was looking at her; it was +certain. She longed to run to his arms, to take refuge in his strength, +as in the incarnation of love itself, and to say to him, to cry out, +"Take me away! carry me with you! let us go! Thine, thine! all my ardour +and all my dreams!" + +The curtain fell. + +The smell of the gas mingled with that of the breaths, the waving of the +fans, made the air more suffocating. Emma wanted to go out; the crowd +filled the corridors, and she fell back in her armchair with +palpitations that choked her. Charles, fearing that she would faint, ran +to the refreshment-room to get a glass of barley-water. + +He had great difficulty in getting back to his seat, for his elbows were +jerked at every step because of the glass he held in his hands, and he +even spilt three-fourths on the shoulders of a Rouen lady in short +sleeves, who feeling the cold liquid running down to her loins, uttered +cries like a peacock, as if she were being assassinated. Her husband, +who was a mill-owner, railed at the clumsy fellow, and while she was +with her handkerchief wiping up the stains from her handsome +cherry-coloured taffeta gown, he angrily muttered about indemnity, +costs, reimbursement. At last Charles reached his wife, saying to her, +quite out of breath: + +"_Ma foi!_ I thought I should have had to stay there. There is such a +crowd--_such_ a crowd!" + +He added-- + +"Just guess whom I met up there! Monsieur Léon!" + +"Léon?" + +"Himself! He's coming along to pay his respects." And as he finished +these words the ex-clerk of Yonville entered the box. + +He held out his hand with the ease of a gentleman; and Madame Bovary +extended hers, without doubt obeying the attraction of a stronger will. +She had not felt it since that spring evening when the rain fell upon +the green leaves, and they had said good-bye standing at the window. But +soon recalling herself to the necessities of the situation, with an +effort she shook off the torpor of her memories, and began stammering a +few hurried words. + +"Ah, good-day! What! you here?" + +"Silence!" cried a voice from the pit, for the third act was beginning. + +"So you are at Rouen?" + +"Yes." + +"And since when?" + +"Turn them out! turn them out!" People were looking at them. They were +silent. + +But from that moment she listened no more; and the chorus of the guests, +the scene between Ashton and his servant, the grand duet in D major, all +were for her as far off as if the instruments had grown less sonorous +and the characters more remote. She remembered the games at cards at +the chemist's, and the walk to the nurse's, the reading in the arbour, +_tête-à-tête_ by the fireside--all that poor love, so calm and so +protracted, so discreet, so tender and that she had nevertheless +forgotten. And why had he come back? What combination of circumstances +had brought him back into her life. He was standing behind her, leaning +with his shoulder against the wall of the box; now and again she felt +herself shuddering beneath the hot breath from his nostrils falling upon +her hair. + +"Does this amuse you?" he said, bending over her so closely that the end +of his moustache brushed her cheek. She replied carelessly: + +"Oh, dear me, no, not much." + +Then he proposed that they should leave the theatre and go and take an +ice somewhere. + +"Oh, not yet; let us stay," said Bovary. "Her hair's undone; this is +going to be tragic." + +But the mad scene did not at all interest Emma, and the acting of the +singer seemed to her exaggerated. + +"She screams too loud," said she, turning to Charles, who was listening. + +"Yes--perhaps--a little," he replied, undecided between the frankness of +his pleasure and his respect for his wife's opinion. + +Then with a sigh Léon said: + +"The heat is--" + +"Unbearable! Yes!" + +"Do you feel unwell?" asked Bovary. + +"Yes, I am stifling; let us go." + +Monsieur Léon put her long lace shawl carefully about her shoulders, and +all three went off to sit down in the harbour, in the open air, outside +the windows of a café. + +First they spoke of her illness, although Emma interrupted Charles from +time to time, for fear, she said, of boring Monsieur Léon; and the +latter told them that he had come to spend two years at Rouen in a large +office, in order to get practice in his profession, which was different +in Normandy and Paris. Then he inquired after Berthe, the Homais, Mère +Lefrançois, and as they had, in the husband's presence, nothing more to +say to one another, the conversation soon came to an end. + +People coming out of the theatre passed along the pavement, humming or +shouting at the top of their voices, "_O bel ange, ma Lucie!_" Then Léon +playing the dilettante, began to talk music. He had seen Tamburini, +Rubini, Persiani, Grisi, and compared with them, Lagardy, despite his +grand outbursts, was nowhere. + +"Yet," interrupted Charles, who was slowly sipping his rum-sherbet, +"they say that he is quite admirable in the last act. I regret leaving +before the end, because it was beginning to amuse me." + +"Why," said the clerk, "he will soon give another performance." + +But Charles replied that they were going back next day. + +"Unless," he added, turning to his wife, "you would like to stay alone, +pussy?" + +And changing his tactics at this unexpected opportunity that presented +itself to his hopes, the young man sang the praises of Lagardy in the +last number. It was really superb, sublime. Then Charles insisted-- + +"You would get back on Sunday. Come, make up your mind. You are wrong +not to stay if you feel that this is doing you the least good." + +The tables round them, however, were emptying; a waiter came and stood +discreetly near them. Charles, who understood, took out his purse; the +clerk held back his arm, and did not forget to leave two more pieces of +silver that he made chink on the marble. + +"I am really sorry," said Bovary, "about the money which you are----" + +The other made a careless gesture full of cordiality, and taking his hat +said-- + +"It is settled, isn't it? To-morrow, at six o'clock?" + +Charles explained once more that he could not absent himself longer, but +that nothing prevented Emma---- + +"But," she stammered, with a strange smile, "I am not sure----" + +"Well, you must think it over. We'll see. Night brings counsel." Then to +Léon, who was walking along with them, "Now that you are in our part of +the world, I hope you'll come and ask us for some dinner now and then." + +The clerk declared he would not fail to do so, being obliged, moreover, +to go to Yonville on some business for his office. And they parted +before the Saint-Herbland Passage just as the cathedral struck half-past +eleven. + + + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Page ix: "the elder Dumas or Eugene Sue." has been changed | + | to "the elder Dumas or Eugène Sue." | + | | + | Page xiv: Emaux in "in his well-known Emaux et Camées" | + | remains unchanged--without an accent | + | | + | Education in "Education Sentimentale" remains unchanged-- | + | without an accent on pages xvi, xvii, xviii, xxiv, xxx | + | | + | Page xvi: "his son Napoleon" has been changed to "his son | + | Napoléon" with an accent | + | | + | Page xvii: Departement in "La Muse du Departement" remains | + | unchanged--without an accent | + | | + | Page xxx: Legende in "La Legende de Saint Julien | + | l'Hospitalier" remains unchanged--without an accent | + | | + | Page 2: "ill-cleaned, hob-nailed boots." has been changed to | + | "ill-cleaned, hobnailed boots." | + | | + | Page 15: "Under the cartshed" has been changed to "Under | + | the cart-shed" | + | | + | Page 19: "than regularly twice a week," has been changed to | + | "then regularly twice a week," | + | | + | Page 20: "on the roofs of the out-buildings" has been | + | changed to "on the roofs of the outbuildings" | + | | + | Page 28: "opposite the fire. on a little table" has been | + | changed to "opposite the fire, on a little table" | + | | + | Page 36: In the original, the word tutoyéd is unclear in | + | 'He called her "my wife," _tutoyéd_ her' | + | | + | Page 40: "a second-hand dogcart," has been changed to | + | "a second-hand dog-cart," | + | | + | Page 86: "a siesta by the water-side." has been changed to | + | "a siesta by the waterside." | + | | + | Page 94: "Madame Lafrançois" has been changed to "Madame | + | Lefrançois" | + | | + | Page 111: "Thus Napoleon represented glory" has been changed | + | to "Thus Napoléon represented glory" | + | | + | Page 117: "Yonville by the water-side." has been changed to | + | "Yonville by the waterside." | + | | + | Page 121: "Seated in her arm-chair" has been changed to | + | "Seated in her armchair" | + | | + | Page 122: "falling asleep in the arm-chairs" has been | + | changed to "falling asleep in the armchairs" | + | | + | Page 126: "The druggist had taken Napoleon" has been | + | changed to "The druggist had taken Napoléon" | + | | + | Page 127: "Napoleon began to roar," has been changed to | + | "Napoléon began to roar," | + | | + | Page 133: "the night-caps arranged in piles" has been | + | changed to "the nightcaps arranged in piles" | + | | + | Page 133: "who came behind his arm-chair" has been | + | changed to "who came behind his armchair" | + | | + | Page 144: "threw herself into an arm-chair." has been | + | changed to "threw herself into an armchair." | + | | + | Page 148: "his three arm-chairs restuffed," has been | + | changed to "his three armchairs restuffed," | + | | + | Page 157: "an arm-chair at his bureau" has been changed to | + | "an armchair at his bureau" | + | | + | Page 166: "columns of the town-hall" has been changed to | + | "columns of the townhall" | + | | + | Page 169: "she had heard from Theodore," has been changed to | + | "she had heard from Théodore," | + | | + | Page 183: "and said to her it a low voice" has been changed | + | to "and said to her in a low voice" | + | | + | Page 184: "decending" has been changed to "descending" | + | | + | Page 186: "Monsieur Belot of Notre-Dame." has been changed | + | to "Monsieur Belot of Nôtre-Dame." | + | | + | Page 208: "the arm-chairs are not to be taken" has been | + | changed to "the armchairs are not to be taken" | + | | + | Page 208: "to put his arm-chair back" has been changed to | + | "to put his armchair back" | + | | + | Page 230: "He sat down again" has been changed to | + | "He sat down again." | + | | + | Page 232: "into his arm-chair overwhelmed" has been changed | + | to "into his armchair overwhelmed" | + | | + | Page 233: Closing quotation marks have been added to | + | "Ah! if you would--" | + | | + | Page 240: Closing quotation marks have been added to | + | "Very well! I'll go to her." | + | | + | Page 252: "rumaging" has been changed to "rummaging" | + | | + | Page 266: "they wheeled her arm-chair" has been changed | + | to "they wheeled her armchair" | + | | + | Page 270: "with them to her bed-room," has been changed | + | to "with them to her bedroom," | + | | + | Page 284: "her arm-chair with palpitations" has been changed | + | to "her armchair with palpitations" | + | | + | Page 288: "the tables round them, however, were emptying:" | + | has been changed to "the tables round them, however, were | + | emptying;" | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame Bovary, Volume 1 (of 2) +by Gustave Flaubert + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME BOVARY *** + +***** This file should be named 27575-8.txt or 27575-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/5/7/27575/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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