And she abruptly withdrew her hand to enter the chapel of the Virgin, where, kneeling on a chair, she began to pray. The young man was irritated at this bigot fancy; then he nevertheless experienced a certain charm in seeing her, in the middle of a rendezvous, thus lost in her devotions, like an Andalusian marchioness; then he grew bored, for she seemed never coming to an end. Emma prayed, or rather strove to pray, hoping that some sudden resolution might descend to her from heaven; and to draw down divine aid she filled full her eyes with the splendours of the tabernacle. She breathed in the perfumes of the full-blown flowers in the large vases, and listened to the stillness of the church, that only heightened the tumult of her heart. She rose, and they were about to leave, when the beadle came forward, hurriedly saying-- "Madame, no doubt, does not belong to these parts? Madame would like to see the curiosities of the church?" "Oh, no!" cried the clerk. "Why not?" said she. For she clung with her expiring virtue to the Virgin, the sculptures, the tombs--anything. Then, in order to proceed "by rule," the beadle conducted them right to the entrance near the square, where, pointing out with his cane a large circle of block-stones without inscription or carving-- "This," he said majestically, "is the circumference of the beautiful bell of Ambroise. It weighed forty thousand pounds. There was not its equal in all Europe. The workman who cast it died of the joy--" "Let us go on," said Leon. The old fellow started off again; then, having got back to the chapel of the Virgin, he stretched forth his arm with an all-embracing gesture of demonstration, and, prouder than a country squire showing you his espaliers, went on-- "This simple stone covers Pierre de Breze, lord of Varenne and of Brissac, grand marshal of Poitou, and governor of Normandy, who died at the battle of Montlhery on the 16th of July, 1465." Leon bit his lips, fuming. "And on the right, this gentleman all encased in iron, on the prancing horse, is his grandson, Louis de Breze, lord of Breval and of Montchauvet, Count de Maulevrier, Baron de Mauny, chamberlain to the king, Knight of the Order, and also governor of Normandy; died on the 23rd of July, 1531--a Sunday, as the inscription specifies; and below, this figure, about to descend into the tomb, portrays the same person. It is not possible, is it, to see a more perfect representation of annihilation?" Madame Bovary put up her eyeglasses. Leon, motionless, looked at her, no longer even attempting to speak a single word, to make a gesture, so discouraged was he at this two-fold obstinacy of gossip and indifference. The everlasting guide went on-- "Near him, this kneeling woman who weeps is his spouse, Diane de Poitiers, Countess de Breze, Duchess de Valentinois, born in 1499, died in 1566, and to the left, the one with the child is the Holy Virgin. Now turn to this side; here are the tombs of the Ambroise. They were both cardinals and archbishops of Rouen. That one was minister under Louis XII. He did a great deal for the cathedral. In his will he left thirty thousand gold crowns for the poor." And without stopping, still talking, he pushed them into a chapel full of balustrades, some put away, and disclosed a kind of block that certainly might once have been an ill-made statue. "Truly," he said with a groan, "it adorned the tomb of Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England and Duke of Normandy. It was the Calvinists, sir, who reduced it to this condition. They had buried it for spite in the earth, under the episcopal seat of Monsignor. See! this is the door by which Monsignor passes to his house. Let us pass on quickly to see the gargoyle windows." But Leon hastily took some silver from his pocket and seized Emma’s arm. The beadle stood dumfounded, not able to understand this untimely munificence when there were still so many things for the stranger to see. So calling him back, he cried-- "Sir! sir! The steeple! the steeple!" "No, thank you!" said Leon. "You are wrong, sir! It is four hundred and forty feet high, nine less than the great pyramid of Egypt. It is all cast; it--" Leon was fleeing, for it seemed to him that his love, that for nearly two hours now had become petrified in the church like the stones, would vanish like a vapour through that sort of truncated funnel, of oblong cage, of open chimney that rises so grotesquely from the cathedral like the extravagant attempt of some fantastic brazier. "But where are we going?" she said. Making no answer, he walked on with a rapid step; and Madame Bovary was already, dipping her finger in the holy water when behind them they heard a panting breath interrupted by the regular sound of a cane. Leon turned back. "Sir!" "What is it?" And he recognised the beadle, holding under his arms and balancing against his stomach some twenty large sewn volumes. They were works "which treated of the cathedral." "Idiot!" growled Leon, rushing out of the church. A lad was playing about the close. "Go and get me a cab!" The child bounded off like a ball by the Rue Quatre-Vents; then they were alone a few minutes, face to face, and a little embarrassed. "Ah! Leon! Really--I don’t know--if I ought," she whispered. Then with a more serious air, "Do you know, it is very improper--" "How so?" replied the clerk. "It is done at Paris." And that, as an irresistible argument, decided her. Still the cab did not come. Leon was afraid she might go back into the church. At last the cab appeared. "At all events, go out by the north porch," cried the beadle, who was left alone on the threshold, "so as to see the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, Paradise, King David, and the Condemned in Hell-flames." "Where to, sir?" asked the coachman. "Where you like," said Leon, forcing Emma into the cab. And the lumbering machine set out. It went down the Rue Grand-Pont, crossed the Place des Arts, the Quai Napoleon, the Pont Neuf, and stopped short before the statue of Pierre Corneille. "Go on," cried a voice that came from within. The cab went on again, and as soon as it reached the Carrefour Lafayette, set off down-hill, and entered the station at a gallop. "No, straight on!" cried the same voice. The cab came out by the gate, and soon having reached the Cours, trotted quietly beneath the elm-trees. The coachman wiped his brow, put his leather hat between his knees, and drove his carriage beyond the side alley by the meadow to the margin of the waters. It went along by the river, along the towing-path paved with sharp pebbles, and for a long while in the direction of Oyssel, beyond the isles. But suddenly it turned with a dash across Quatremares, Sotteville, La Grande-Chaussee, the Rue d’Elbeuf, and made its third halt in front of the Jardin des Plantes. "Get on, will you?" cried the voice more furiously. And at once resuming its course, it passed by Saint-Sever, by the Quai’des Curandiers, the Quai aux Meules, once more over the bridge, by the Place du Champ de Mars, and behind the hospital gardens, where old men in black coats were walking in the sun along the terrace all green with ivy. It went up the Boulevard Bouvreuil, along the Boulevard Cauchoise, then the whole of Mont-Riboudet to the Deville hills. It came back; and then, without any fixed plan or direction, wandered about at hazard. The cab was seen at Saint-Pol, at Lescure, at Mont Gargan, at La Rougue-Marc and Place du Gaillardbois; in the Rue Maladrerie, Rue Dinanderie, before Saint-Romain, Saint-Vivien, Saint-Maclou, Saint-Nicaise--in front of the Customs, at the "Vieille Tour," the "Trois Pipes," and the Monumental Cemetery. From time to time the coachman, on his box cast despairing eyes at the public-houses. He could not understand what furious desire for locomotion urged these individuals never to wish to stop. He tried to now and then, and at once exclamations of anger burst forth behind him. Then he lashed his perspiring jades afresh, but indifferent to their jolting, running up against things here and there, not caring if he did, demoralised, and almost weeping with thirst, fatigue, and depression. And on the harbour, in the midst of the drays and casks, and in the streets, at the corners, the good folk opened large wonder-stricken eyes at this sight, so extraordinary in the provinces, a cab with blinds drawn, and which appeared thus constantly shut more closely than a tomb, and tossing about like a vessel. Once in the middle of the day, in the open country, just as the sun beat most fiercely against the old plated lanterns, a bared hand passed beneath the small blinds of yellow canvas, and threw out some scraps of paper that scattered in the wind, and farther off lighted like white butterflies on a field of red clover all in bloom. At about six o’clock the carriage stopped in a back street of the Beauvoisine Quarter, and a woman got out, who walked with her veil down, and without turning her head. Chapter Two On reaching the inn, Madame Bovary was surprised not to see the diligence. Hivert, who had waited for her fifty-three minutes, had at last started. Yet nothing forced her to go; but she had given her word that she would return that same evening. Moreover, Charles expected her, and in her heart she felt already that cowardly docility that is for some women at once the chastisement and atonement of adultery. She packed her box quickly, paid her bill, took a cab in the yard, hurrying on the driver, urging him on, every moment inquiring about the time and the miles traversed. He succeeded in catching up the "Hirondelle" as it neared the first houses of Quincampoix. Hardly was she seated in her corner than she closed her eyes, and opened them at the foot of the hill, when from afar she recognised Felicite, who was on the lookout in front of the farrier’s shop. Hivert pulled in his horses and, the servant, climbing up to the window, said mysteriously-- "Madame, you must go at once to Monsieur Homais. It’s for something important." The village was silent as usual. At the corner of the streets were small pink heaps that smoked in the air, for this was the time for jam-making, and everyone at Yonville prepared his supply on the same day. But in front of the chemist’s shop one might admire a far larger heap, and that surpassed the others with the superiority that a laboratory must have over ordinary stores, a general need over individual fancy. She went in. The large arm-chair was upset, and even the "Fanal de Rouen" lay on the ground, outspread between two pestles. She pushed open the lobby door, and in the middle of the kitchen, amid brown jars full of picked currants, of powdered sugar and lump sugar, of the scales on the table, and of the pans on the fire, she saw all the Homais, small and large, with aprons reaching to their chins, and with forks in their hands. Justin was standing up with bowed head, and the chemist was screaming-- "Who told you to go and fetch it in the Capharnaum." "What is it? What is the matter?" "What is it?" replied the druggist. "We are making preserves; they are simmering; but they were about to boil over, because there is too much juice, and I ordered another pan. Then he, from indolence, from laziness, went and took, hanging on its nail in my laboratory, the key of the Capharnaum." It was thus the druggist called a small room under the leads, full of the utensils and the goods of his trade. He often spent long hours there alone, labelling, decanting, and doing up again; and he looked upon it not as a simple store, but as a veritable sanctuary, whence there afterwards issued, elaborated by his hands, all sorts of pills, boluses, infusions, lotions, and potions, that would bear far and wide his celebrity. No one in the world set foot there, and he respected it so, that he swept it himself. Finally, if the pharmacy, open to all comers, was the spot where he displayed his pride, the Capharnaum was the refuge where, egoistically concentrating himself, Homais delighted in the exercise of his predilections, so that Justin’s thoughtlessness seemed to him a monstrous piece of irreverence, and, redder than the currants, he repeated-- "Yes, from the Capharnaum! The key that locks up the acids and caustic alkalies! To go and get a spare pan! a pan with a lid! and that I shall perhaps never use! Everything is of importance in the delicate operations of our art! But, devil take it! one must make distinctions, and not employ for almost domestic purposes that which is meant for pharmaceutical! It is as if one were to carve a fowl with a scalpel; as if a magistrate--" "Now be calm," said Madame Homais. And Athalie, pulling at his coat, cried "Papa! papa!" "No, let me alone," went on the druggist "let me alone, hang it! My word! One might as well set up for a grocer. That’s it! go it! respect nothing! break, smash, let loose the leeches, burn the mallow-paste, pickle the gherkins in the window jars, tear up the bandages!" "I thought you had--" said Emma. "Presently! Do you know to what you exposed yourself? Didn’t you see anything in the corner, on the left, on the third shelf? Speak, answer, articulate something." "I--don’t--know," stammered the young fellow. "Ah! you don’t know! Well, then, I do know! You saw a bottle of blue glass, sealed with yellow wax, that contains a white powder, on which I have even written ‘Dangerous!’ And do you know what is in it? Arsenic! And you go and touch it! You take a pan that was next to it!" "Next to it!" cried Madame Homais, clasping her hands. "Arsenic! You might have poisoned us all." And the children began howling as if they already had frightful pains in their entrails. "Or poison a patient!" continued the druggist. "Do you want to see me in the prisoner’s dock with criminals, in a court of justice? To see me dragged to the scaffold? Don’t you know what care I take in managing things, although I am so thoroughly used to it? Often I am horrified myself when I think of my responsibility; for the Government persecutes us, and the absurd legislation that rules us is a veritable Damocles’ sword over our heads." Emma no longer dreamed of asking what they wanted her for, and the druggist went on in breathless phrases-- "That is your return for all the kindness we have shown you! That is how you recompense me for the really paternal care that I lavish on you! For without me where would you be? What would you be doing? Who provides you with food, education, clothes, and all the means of figuring one day with honour in the ranks of society? But you must pull hard at the oar if you’re to do that, and get, as, people say, callosities upon your hands. Fabricando fit faber, age quod agis.*" * The worker lives by working, do what he will. He was so exasperated he quoted Latin. He would have quoted Chinese or Greenlandish had he known those two languages, for he was in one of those crises in which the whole soul shows indistinctly what it contains, like the ocean, which, in the storm, opens itself from the seaweeds on its shores down to the sands of its abysses. And he went on-- "I am beginning to repent terribly of having taken you up! I should certainly have done better to have left you to rot in your poverty and the dirt in which you were born. Oh, you’ll never be fit for anything but to herd animals with horns! You have no aptitude for science! You hardly know how to stick on a label! And there you are, dwelling with me snug as a parson, living in clover, taking your ease!" But Emma, turning to Madame Homais, "I was told to come here--" "Oh, dear me!" interrupted the good woman, with a sad air, "how am I to tell you? It is a misfortune!" She could not finish, the druggist was thundering--"Empty it! Clean it! Take it back! Be quick!" And seizing Justin by the collar of his blouse, he shook a book out of his pocket. The lad stooped, but Homais was the quicker, and, having picked up the volume, contemplated it with staring eyes and open mouth. "CONJUGAL--LOVE!" he said, slowly separating the two words. "Ah! very good! very good! very pretty! And illustrations! Oh, this is too much!" Madame Homais came forward. "No, do not touch it!" The children wanted to look at the pictures. "Leave the room," he said imperiously; and they went out. First he walked up and down with the open volume in his hand, rolling his eyes, choking, tumid, apoplectic. Then he came straight to his pupil, and, planting himself in front of him with crossed arms-- "Have you every vice, then, little wretch? Take care! you are on a downward path. Did not you reflect that this infamous book might fall in the hands of my children, kindle a spark in their minds, tarnish the purity of Athalie, corrupt Napoleon. He is already formed like a man. Are you quite sure, anyhow, that they have not read it? Can you certify to me--" "But really, sir," said Emma, "you wished to tell me--" "Ah, yes! madame. Your father-in-law is dead." In fact, Monsieur Bovary senior had expired the evening before suddenly from an attack of apoplexy as he got up from table, and by way of greater precaution, on account of Emma’s sensibility, Charles had begged Homais to break the horrible news to her gradually. Homais had thought over his speech; he had rounded, polished it, made it rhythmical; it was a masterpiece of prudence and transitions, of subtle turns and delicacy; but anger had got the better of rhetoric. Emma, giving up all chance of hearing any details, left the pharmacy; for Monsieur Homais had taken up the thread of his vituperations. However, he was growing calmer, and was now grumbling in a paternal tone whilst he fanned himself with his skull-cap. "It is not that I entirely disapprove of the work. Its author was a doctor! There are certain scientific points in it that it is not ill a man should know, and I would even venture to say that a man must know. But later--later! At any rate, not till you are man yourself and your temperament is formed." When Emma knocked at the door. Charles, who was waiting for her, came forward with open arms and said to her with tears in his voice-- "Ah! my dear!" And he bent over her gently to kiss her. But at the contact of his lips the memory of the other seized her, and she passed her hand over her face shuddering. But she made answer, "Yes, I know, I know!" He showed her the letter in which his mother told the event without any sentimental hypocrisy. She only regretted her husband had not received the consolations of religion, as he had died at Daudeville, in the street, at the door of a cafe after a patriotic dinner with some ex-officers. Emma gave him back the letter; then at dinner, for appearance’s sake, she affected a certain repugnance. But as he urged her to try, she resolutely began eating, while Charles opposite her sat motionless in a dejected attitude. Now and then he raised his head and gave her a long look full of distress. Once he sighed, "I should have liked to see him again!" She was silent. At last, understanding that she must say something, "How old was your father?" she asked. "Fifty-eight." "Ah!" And that was all. A quarter of an hour after he added, "My poor mother! what will become of her now?" She made a gesture that signified she did not know. Seeing her so taciturn, Charles imagined her much affected, and forced himself to say nothing, not to reawaken this sorrow which moved him. And, shaking off his own-- "Did you enjoy yourself yesterday?" he asked. "Yes." When the cloth was removed, Bovary did not rise, nor did Emma; and as she looked at him, the monotony of the spectacle drove little by little all pity from her heart. He seemed to her paltry, weak, a cipher--in a word, a poor thing in every way. How to get rid of him? What an interminable evening! Something stupefying like the fumes of opium seized her. They heard in the passage the sharp noise of a wooden leg on the boards. It was Hippolyte bringing back Emma’s luggage. In order to put it down he described painfully a quarter of a circle with his stump. "He doesn’t even remember any more about it," she thought, looking at the poor devil, whose coarse red hair was wet with perspiration. Bovary was searching at the bottom of his purse for a centime, and without appearing to understand all there was of humiliation for him in the mere presence of this man, who stood there like a personified reproach to his incurable incapacity. "Hallo! you’ve a pretty bouquet," he said, noticing Leon’s violets on the chimney. "Yes," she replied indifferently; "it’s a bouquet I bought just now from a beggar." Charles picked up the flowers, and freshening his eyes, red with tears, against them, smelt them delicately. She took them quickly from his hand and put them in a glass of water. The next day Madame Bovary senior arrived. She and her son wept much. Emma, on the pretext of giving orders, disappeared. The following day they had a talk over the mourning. They went and sat down with their workboxes by the waterside under the arbour. Charles was thinking of his father, and was surprised to feel so much affection for this man, whom till then he had thought he cared little about. Madame Bovary senior was thinking of her husband. The worst days of the past seemed enviable to her. All was forgotten beneath the instinctive regret of such a long habit, and from time to time whilst she sewed, a big tear rolled along her nose and hung suspended there a moment. Emma was thinking that it was scarcely forty-eight hours since they had been together, far from the world, all in a frenzy of joy, and not having eyes enough to gaze upon each other. She tried to recall the slightest details of that past day. But the presence of her husband and mother-in-law worried her. She would have liked to hear nothing, to see nothing, so as not to disturb the meditation on her love, that, do what she would, became lost in external sensations. She was unpicking the lining of a dress, and the strips were scattered around her. Madame Bovary senior was plying her scissor without looking up, and Charles, in his list slippers and his old brown surtout that he used as a dressing-gown, sat with both hands in his pockets, and did not speak either; near them Berthe, in a little white pinafore, was raking sand in the walks with her spade. Suddenly she saw Monsieur Lheureux, the linendraper, come in through the gate. He came to offer his services "under the sad circumstances." Emma answered that she thought she could do without. The shopkeeper was not to be beaten. "I beg your pardon," he said, "but I should like to have a private talk with you." Then in a low voice, "It’s about that affair--you know." Charles crimsoned to his ears. "Oh, yes! certainly." And in his confusion, turning to his wife, "Couldn’t you, my darling?" She seemed to understand him, for she rose; and Charles said to his mother, "It is nothing particular. No doubt, some household trifle." He did not want her to know the story of the bill, fearing her reproaches. As soon as they were alone, Monsieur Lheureux in sufficiently clear terms began to congratulate Emma on the inheritance, then to talk of indifferent matters, of the espaliers, of the harvest, and of his own health, which was always so-so, always having ups and downs. In fact, he had to work devilish hard, although he didn’t make enough, in spite of all people said, to find butter for his bread. Emma let him talk on. She had bored herself so prodigiously the last two days. "And so you’re quite well again?" he went on. "Ma foi! I saw your husband in a sad state. He’s a good fellow, though we did have a little misunderstanding." She asked what misunderstanding, for Charles had said nothing of the dispute about the goods supplied to her. "Why, you know well enough," cried Lheureux. "It was about your little fancies--the travelling trunks." He had drawn his hat over his eyes, and, with his hands behind his back, smiling and whistling, he looked straight at her in an unbearable manner. Did he suspect anything? She was lost in all kinds of apprehensions. At last, however, he went on-- "We made it up, all the same, and I’ve come again to propose another arrangement." This was to renew the bill Bovary had signed. The doctor, of course, would do as he pleased; he was not to trouble himself, especially just now, when he would have a lot of worry. "And he would do better to give it over to someone else--to you, for example. With a power of attorney it could be easily managed, and then we (you and I) would have our little business transactions together." She did not understand. He was silent. Then, passing to his trade, Lheureux declared that madame must require something. He would send her a black barege, twelve yards, just enough to make a gown. "The one you’ve on is good enough for the house, but you want another for calls. I saw that the very moment that I came in. I’ve the eye of an American!" He did not send the stuff; he brought it. Then he came again to measure it; he came again on other pretexts, always trying to make himself agreeable, useful, "enfeoffing himself," as Homais would have said, and always dropping some hint to Emma about the power of attorney. He never mentioned the bill; she did not think of it. Charles, at the beginning of her convalescence, had certainly said something about it to her, but so many emotions had passed through her head that she no longer remembered it. Besides, she took care not to talk of any money questions. Madame Bovary seemed surprised at this, and attributed the change in her ways to the religious sentiments she had contracted during her illness. But as soon as she was gone, Emma greatly astounded Bovary by her practical good sense. It would be necessary to make inquiries, to look into mortgages, and see if there were any occasion for a sale by auction or a liquidation. She quoted technical terms casually, pronounced the grand words of order, the future, foresight, and constantly exaggerated the difficulties of settling his father’s affairs so much, that at last one day she showed him the rough draft of a power of attorney to manage and administer his business, arrange all loans, sign and endorse all bills, pay all sums, etc. She had profited by Lheureux’s lessons. Charles naively asked her where this paper came from. "Monsieur Guillaumin"; and with the utmost coolness she added, "I don’t trust him overmuch. Notaries have such a bad reputation. Perhaps we ought to consult--we only know--no one." "Unless Leon--" replied Charles, who was reflecting. But it was difficult to explain matters by letter. Then she offered to make the journey, but he thanked her. She insisted. It was quite a contest of mutual consideration. At last she cried with affected waywardness-- "No, I will go!" "How good you are!" he said, kissing her forehead. The next morning she set out in the "Hirondelle" to go to Rouen to consult Monsieur Leon, and she stayed there three days. Chapter Three They were three full, exquisite days--a true honeymoon. They were at the Hotel-de-Boulogne, on the harbour; and they lived there, with drawn blinds and closed doors, with flowers on the floor, and iced syrups were brought them early in the morning. Towards evening they took a covered boat and went to dine on one of the islands. It was the time when one hears by the side of the dockyard the caulking-mallets sounding against the hull of vessels. The smoke of the tar rose up between the trees; there were large fatty drops on the water, undulating in the purple colour of the sun, like floating plaques of Florentine bronze. They rowed down in the midst of moored boats, whose long oblique cables grazed lightly against the bottom of the boat. The din of the town gradually grew distant; the rolling of carriages, the tumult of voices, the yelping of dogs on the decks of vessels. She took off her bonnet, and they landed on their island. They sat down in the low-ceilinged room of a tavern, at whose door hung black nets. They ate fried smelts, cream and cherries. They lay down upon the grass; they kissed behind the poplars; and they would fain, like two Robinsons, have lived for ever in this little place, which seemed to them in their beatitude the most magnificent on earth. It was not the first time that they had seen trees, a blue sky, meadows; that they had heard the water flowing and the wind blowing in the leaves; but, no doubt, they had never admired all this, as if Nature had not existed before, or had only begun to be beautiful since the gratification of their desires. At night they returned. The boat glided along the shores of the islands. They sat at the bottom, both hidden by the shade, in silence. The square oars rang in the iron thwarts, and, in the stillness, seemed to mark time, like the beating of a metronome, while at the stern the rudder that trailed behind never ceased its gentle splash against the water. Once the moon rose; they did not fail to make fine phrases, finding the orb melancholy and full of poetry. She even began to sing-- "One night, do you remember, we were sailing," etc. Her musical but weak voice died away along the waves, and the winds carried off the trills that Leon heard pass like the flapping of wings about him. She was opposite him, leaning against the partition of the shallop, through one of whose raised blinds the moon streamed in. Her black dress, whose drapery spread out like a fan, made her seem more slender, taller. Her head was raised, her hands clasped, her eyes turned towards heaven. At times the shadow of the willows hid her completely; then she reappeared suddenly, like a vision in the moonlight. Leon, on the floor by her side, found under his hand a ribbon of scarlet silk. The boatman looked at it, and at last said-- "Perhaps it belongs to the party I took out the other day. A lot of jolly folk, gentlemen and ladies, with cakes, champagne, cornets--everything in style! There was one especially, a tall handsome man with small moustaches, who was that funny! And they all kept saying, ‘Now tell us something, Adolphe--Dolpe,’ I think." She shivered. "You are in pain?" asked Leon, coming closer to her. "Oh, it’s nothing! No doubt, it is only the night air." "And who doesn’t want for women, either," softly added the sailor, thinking he was paying the stranger a compliment. Then, spitting on his hands, he took the oars again. Yet they had to part. The adieux were sad. He was to send his letters to Mere Rollet, and she gave him such precise instructions about a double envelope that he admired greatly her amorous astuteness. "So you can assure me it is all right?" she said with her last kiss. "Yes, certainly." "But why," he thought afterwards as he came back through the streets alone, "is she so very anxious to get this power of attorney?" Chapter Four Leon soon put on an air of superiority before his comrades, avoided their company, and completely neglected his work. He waited for her letters; he re-read them; he wrote to her. He called her to mind with all the strength of his desires and of his memories. Instead of lessening with absence, this longing to see her again grew, so that at last on Saturday morning he escaped from his office. When, from the summit of the hill, he saw in the valley below the church-spire with its tin flag swinging in the wind, he felt that delight mingled with triumphant vanity and egoistic tenderness that millionaires must experience when they come back to their native village. He went rambling round her house. A light was burning in the kitchen. He watched for her shadow behind the curtains, but nothing appeared. Mere Lefrancois, when she saw him, uttered many exclamations. She thought he "had grown and was thinner," while Artemise, on the contrary, thought him stouter and darker. He dined in the little room as of yore, but alone, without the tax-gatherer; for Binet, tired of waiting for the "Hirondelle," had definitely put forward his meal one hour, and now he dined punctually at five, and yet he declared usually the rickety old concern "was late." Leon, however, made up his mind, and knocked at the doctor’s door. Madame was in her room, and did not come down for a quarter of an hour. The doctor seemed delighted to see him, but he never stirred out that evening, nor all the next day. He saw her alone in the evening, very late, behind the garden in the lane; in the lane, as she had the other one! It was a stormy night, and they talked under an umbrella by lightning flashes. Their separation was becoming intolerable. "I would rather die!" said Emma. She was writhing in his arms, weeping. "Adieu! adieu! When shall I see you again?" They came back again to embrace once more, and it was then that she promised him to find soon, by no matter what means, a regular opportunity for seeing one another in freedom at least once a week. Emma never doubted she should be able to do this. Besides, she was full of hope. Some money was coming to her. On the strength of it she bought a pair of yellow curtains with large stripes for her room, whose cheapness Monsieur Lheureux had commended; she dreamed of getting a carpet, and Lheureux, declaring that it wasn’t "drinking the sea," politely undertook to supply her with one. She could no longer do without his services. Twenty times a day she sent for him, and he at once put by his business without a murmur. People could not understand either why Mere Rollet breakfasted with her every day, and even paid her private visits. It was about this time, that is to say, the beginning of winter, that she seemed seized with great musical fervour. One evening when Charles was listening to her, she began the same piece four times over, each time with much vexation, while he, not noticing any difference, cried-- "Bravo! very goodl You are wrong to stop. Go on!" "Oh, no; it is execrable! My fingers are quite rusty." The next day he begged her to play him something again. "Very well; to please you!" And Charles confessed she had gone off a little. She played wrong notes and blundered; then, stopping short-- "Ah! it is no use. I ought to take some lessons; but--" She bit her lips and added, "Twenty francs a lesson, that’s too dear!" "Yes, so it is--rather," said Charles, giggling stupidly. "But it seems to me that one might be able to do it for less; for there are artists of no reputation, and who are often better than the celebrities." "Find them!" said Emma. The next day when he came home he looked at her shyly, and at last could no longer keep back the words. "How obstinate you are sometimes! I went to Barfucheres to-day. Well, Madame Liegard assured me that her three young ladies who are at La Misericorde have lessons at fifty sous apiece, and that from an excellent mistress!" She shrugged her shoulders and did not open her piano again. But when she passed by it (if Bovary were there), she sighed-- "Ah! my poor piano!" And when anyone came to see her, she did not fail to inform them she had given up music, and could not begin again now for important reasons. Then people commiserated her-- "What a pity! she had so much talent!" They even spoke to Bovary about it. They put him to shame, and especially the chemist. "You are wrong. One should never let any of the faculties of nature lie fallow. Besides, just think, my good friend, that by inducing madame to study; you are economising on the subsequent musical education of your child. For my own part, I think that mothers ought themselves to instruct their children. That is an idea of Rousseau’s, still rather new perhaps, but that will end by triumphing, I am certain of it, like mothers nursing their own children and vaccination." So Charles returned once more to this question of the piano. Emma replied bitterly that it would be better to sell it. This poor piano, that had given her vanity so much satisfaction--to see it go was to Bovary like the indefinable suicide of a part of herself. "If you liked," he said, "a lesson from time to time, that wouldn’t after all be very ruinous." "But lessons," she replied, "are only of use when followed up." And thus it was she set about obtaining her husband’s permission to go to town once a week to see her lover. At the end of a month she was even considered to have made considerable progress. Chapter Five She went on Thursdays. She got up and dressed silently, in order not to awaken Charles, who would have made remarks about her getting ready too early. Next she walked up and down, went to the windows, and looked out at the Place. The early dawn was broadening between the pillars of the market, and the chemist’s shop, with the shutters still up, showed in the pale light of the dawn the large letters of his signboard. When the clock pointed to a quarter past seven, she went off to the "Lion d’Or," whose door Artemise opened yawning. The girl then made up the coals covered by the cinders, and Emma remained alone in the kitchen. Now and again she went out. Hivert was leisurely harnessing his horses, listening, moreover, to Mere Lefrancois, who, passing her head and nightcap through a grating, was charging him with commissions and giving him explanations that would have confused anyone else. Emma kept beating the soles of her boots against the pavement of the yard. At last, when he had eaten his soup, put on his cloak, lighted his pipe, and grasped his whip, he calmly installed himself on his seat. The "Hirondelle" started at a slow trot, and for about a mile stopped here and there to pick up passengers who waited for it, standing at the border of the road, in front of their yard gates. Those who had secured seats the evening before kept it waiting; some even were still in bed in their houses. Hivert called, shouted, swore; then he got down from his seat and went and knocked loudly at the doors. The wind blew through the cracked windows. The four seats, however, filled up. The carriage rolled off; rows of apple-trees followed one upon another, and the road between its two long ditches, full of yellow water, rose, constantly narrowing towards the horizon. Emma knew it from end to end; she knew that after a meadow there was a sign-post, next an elm, a barn, or the hut of a lime-kiln tender. Sometimes even, in the hope of getting some surprise, she shut her eyes, but she never lost the clear perception of the distance to be traversed. At last the brick houses began to follow one another more closely, the earth resounded beneath the wheels, the "Hirondelle" glided between the gardens, where through an opening one saw statues, a periwinkle plant, clipped yews, and a swing. Then on a sudden the town appeared. Sloping down like an amphitheatre, and drowned in the fog, it widened out beyond the bridges confusedly. Then the open country spread away with a monotonous movement till it touched in the distance the vague line of the pale sky. Seen thus from above, the whole landscape looked immovable as a picture; the anchored ships were massed in one corner, the river curved round the foot of the green hills, and the isles, oblique in shape, lay on the water, like large, motionless, black fishes. The factory chimneys belched forth immense brown fumes that were blown away at the top. One heard the rumbling of the foundries, together with the clear chimes of the churches that stood out in the mist. The leafless trees on the boulevards made violet thickets in the midst of the houses, and the roofs, all shining with the rain, threw back unequal reflections, according to the height of the quarters in which they were. Sometimes a gust of wind drove the clouds towards the Saint Catherine hills, like aerial waves that broke silently against a cliff. A giddiness seemed to her to detach itself from this mass of existence, and her heart swelled as if the hundred and twenty thousand souls that palpitated there had all at once sent into it the vapour of the passions she fancied theirs. Her love grew in the presence of this vastness, and expanded with tumult to the vague murmurings that rose towards her. She poured it out upon the square, on the walks, on the streets, and the old Norman city outspread before her eyes as an enormous capital, as a Babylon into which she was entering. She leant with both hands against the window, drinking in the breeze; the three horses galloped, the stones grated in the mud, the diligence rocked, and Hivert, from afar, hailed the carts on the road, while the bourgeois who had spent the night at the Guillaume woods came quietly down the hill in their little family carriages. They stopped at the barrier; Emma undid her overshoes, put on other gloves, rearranged her shawl, and some twenty paces farther she got down from the "Hirondelle." The town was then awakening. Shop-boys in caps were cleaning up the shop-fronts, and women with baskets against their hips, at intervals uttered sonorous cries at the corners of streets. She walked with downcast eyes, close to the walls, and smiling with pleasure under her lowered black veil. For fear of being seen, she did not usually take the most direct road. She plunged into dark alleys, and, all perspiring, reached the bottom of the Rue Nationale, near the fountain that stands there. It is the quarter for theatres, public-houses, and whores. Often a cart would pass near her, bearing some shaking scenery. Waiters in aprons were sprinkling sand on the flagstones between green shrubs. It all smelt of absinthe, cigars, and oysters. She turned down a street; she recognised him by his curling hair that escaped from beneath his hat. Leon walked along the pavement. She followed him to the hotel. He went up, opened the door, entered--What an embrace! Then, after the kisses, the words gushed forth. They told each other the sorrows of the week, the presentiments, the anxiety for the letters; but now everything was forgotten; they gazed into each other’s faces with voluptuous laughs, and tender names. The bed was large, of mahogany, in the shape of a boat. The curtains were in red levantine, that hung from the ceiling and bulged out too much towards the bell-shaped bedside; and nothing in the world was so lovely as her brown head and white skin standing out against this purple colour, when, with a movement of shame, she crossed her bare arms, hiding her face in her hands. The warm room, with its discreet carpet, its gay ornaments, and its calm light, seemed made for the intimacies of passion. The curtain-rods, ending in arrows, their brass pegs, and the great balls of the fire-dogs shone suddenly when the sun came in. On the chimney between the candelabra there were two of those pink shells in which one hears the murmur of the sea if one holds them to the ear. How they loved that dear room, so full of gaiety, despite its rather faded splendour! They always found the furniture in the same place, and sometimes hairpins, that she had forgotten the Thursday before, under the pedestal of the clock. They lunched by the fireside on a little round table, inlaid with rosewood. Emma carved, put bits on his plate with all sorts of coquettish ways, and she laughed with a sonorous and libertine laugh when the froth of the champagne ran over from the glass to the rings on her fingers. They were so completely lost in the possession of each other that they thought themselves in their own house, and that they would live there till death, like two spouses eternally young. They said "our room," "our carpet," she even said "my slippers," a gift of Leon’s, a whim she had had. They were pink satin, bordered with swansdown. When she sat on his knees, her leg, then too short, hung in the air, and the dainty shoe, that had no back to it, was held only by the toes to her bare foot. He for the first time enjoyed the inexpressible delicacy of feminine refinements. He had never met this grace of language, this reserve of clothing, these poses of the weary dove. He admired the exaltation of her soul and the lace on her petticoat. Besides, was she not "a lady" and a married woman--a real mistress, in fine? By the diversity of her humour, in turn mystical or mirthful, talkative, taciturn, passionate, careless, she awakened in him a thousand desires, called up instincts or memories. She was the mistress of all the novels, the heroine of all the dramas, the vague "she" of all the volumes of verse. He found again on her shoulder the amber colouring of the "Odalisque Bathing"; she had the long waist of feudal chatelaines, and she resembled the "Pale Woman of Barcelona." But above all she was the Angel! Often looking at her, it seemed to him that his soul, escaping towards her, spread like a wave about the outline of her head, and descended drawn down into the whiteness of her breast. He knelt on the ground before her, and with both elbows on her knees looked at her with a smile, his face upturned. She bent over him, and murmured, as if choking with intoxication-- "Oh, do not move! do not speak! look at me! Something so sweet comes from your eyes that helps me so much!" She called him "child." "Child, do you love me?" And she did not listen for his answer in the haste of her lips that fastened to his mouth. On the clock there was a bronze cupid, who smirked as he bent his arm beneath a golden garland. They had laughed at it many a time, but when they had to part everything seemed serious to them. Motionless in front of each other, they kept repeating, "Till Thursday, till Thursday." Suddenly she seized his head between her hands, kissed him hurriedly on the forehead, crying, "Adieu!" and rushed down the stairs. She went to a hairdresser’s in the Rue de la Comedie to have her hair arranged. Night fell; the gas was lighted in the shop. She heard the bell at the theatre calling the mummers to the performance, and she saw, passing opposite, men with white faces and women in faded gowns going in at the stage-door. 1 , 2 , , . 3 4 ; 5 , 6 , , ; 7 , . 8 9 , , 10 ; 11 . 12 - , 13 , 14 . 15 16 , , , 17 - - 18 19 " , , ? 20 ? " 21 22 " , ! " . 23 24 " ? " . 25 , , - - . 26 27 , " , " 28 , , 29 - - - 30 31 " , " , " 32 . . 33 . - - " 34 35 " , " . 36 37 ; , 38 , - 39 , , 40 , - - 41 42 " , 43 , , , 44 , . " 45 46 , . 47 48 " , , 49 , , , 50 , , , 51 , , ; 52 , - - , ; , 53 , , . 54 , , 55 ? " 56 57 . , , , 58 , , 59 - 60 . 61 62 - - 63 64 " , , 65 , , , , 66 , , . 67 ; . 68 . 69 . . 70 . " 71 72 , , 73 , , 74 - . 75 76 " , " , " 77 , . , , 78 . 79 , . ! 80 . 81 . " 82 83 84 . , 85 86 . , - - 87 88 " ! ! ! ! " 89 90 " , ! " . 91 92 " , ! , 93 . ; - - " 94 95 , , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 . 100 101 " ? " . 102 103 , ; 104 , 105 . 106 . 107 108 " ! " 109 110 " ? " 111 112 , 113 . 114 " . " 115 116 " ! " , . 117 118 . 119 120 " ! " 121 122 - ; 123 , , . 124 125 " ! ! - - - - , " . 126 , " , - - " 127 128 " ? " . " . " 129 130 , , . 131 132 . 133 . . 134 135 " , , " , 136 , " , 137 , , , - . " 138 139 " , ? " . 140 141 " , " , . 142 143 . - , 144 , , , 145 . 146 147 " , " . 148 149 , 150 , - , . 151 152 " , ! " . 153 154 , , 155 - . , 156 , 157 . 158 159 , - 160 , , 161 . 162 163 , , 164 - , , 165 . 166 167 " , ? " . 168 169 , - , 170 , , , 171 , , 172 173 . , 174 , - . 175 176 ; , , 177 . - , , 178 , - ; 179 , , - , - , 180 - , - - - , " 181 , " " , " . 182 , - . 183 184 . , 185 . 186 , , 187 , , , 188 , , . 189 190 , , 191 , , - 192 , , 193 , , 194 . 195 196 , , 197 , 198 , 199 , 200 . 201 202 203 , , , 204 . 205 206 207 208 209 210 , 211 . , - , 212 . 213 214 ; 215 . , , 216 217 . 218 219 , , , 220 , , 221 . 222 " " . 223 224 , 225 , , 226 . 227 , , , 228 - - 229 230 " , . 231 . " 232 233 . 234 , - , 235 . 236 , 237 238 , . 239 240 . - , " 241 " , . 242 , , 243 , , 244 , , , 245 , , 246 . , 247 - - 248 249 " . " 250 251 " ? ? " 252 253 " ? " . " ; 254 ; , 255 , . , , 256 , , , 257 . " 258 259 , 260 . 261 , , , ; 262 , , 263 , , , , 264 , , , 265 . , , 266 . , , , 267 , 268 , , 269 , 270 , , , 271 - - 272 273 " , ! 274 ! ! ! 275 ! 276 ! , ! , 277 278 ! ; 279 - - " 280 281 " , " . 282 283 , , " ! ! " 284 285 " , , " " , ! 286 ! . ! ! 287 ! , , , - , 288 , ! " 289 290 " - - " . 291 292 " ! ? 293 , , ? , , 294 . " 295 296 " - - - - , " . 297 298 " ! ! , , ! 299 , , , 300 ! ? ! 301 ! ! " 302 303 " ! " , . " ! 304 . " 305 306 307 . 308 309 " ! " . " 310 , ? 311 ? 312 , ? 313 ; 314 , 315 . " 316 317 , 318 - - 319 320 " ! 321 ! 322 ? ? 323 , , , 324 ? 325 , , , , 326 . , . * " 327 328 * , . 329 330 331 . 332 , 333 334 , , , , 335 . 336 337 - - 338 339 " ! 340 341 . , 342 ! ! 343 ! , 344 , , ! " 345 346 , , " - - " 347 348 " , ! " , , " 349 ? ! " 350 351 , - - " ! ! 352 ! ! " 353 354 , 355 . , , , 356 , . 357 358 " - - ! " , . " ! 359 ! ! ! ! , ! " 360 361 . 362 363 " , ! " 364 365 . 366 367 " , " ; . 368 369 , 370 , , , . 371 , , - - 372 373 " , , ? ! 374 . 375 , , 376 , . . 377 , , ? 378 - - " 379 380 " , , " , " - - " 381 382 " , ! . - - . " 383 384 , 385 , 386 , , 387 . 388 ; , , ; 389 , ; 390 . 391 392 , , ; 393 . 394 , , 395 - . 396 397 " . 398 ! 399 , . 400 - - ! , 401 . " 402 403 . , , 404 - - 405 406 " ! ! " 407 408 . 409 , 410 . 411 412 , " , , ! " 413 414 415 . 416 , , 417 , 418 - . 419 420 ; , , 421 . , 422 , 423 . 424 425 426 . , " ! " 427 428 . , , " 429 ? " . 430 431 " - . " 432 433 " ! " 434 435 . 436 437 , " ! 438 ? " 439 440 . 441 , , 442 , . , 443 - - 444 445 " ? " . 446 447 " . " 448 449 , , ; 450 , 451 . , , - - 452 , . ? 453 ! 454 . 455 456 . 457 . 458 . 459 460 " , " , 461 , . 462 463 , 464 465 , 466 . 467 468 " ! , " , 469 . 470 471 " , " ; " 472 . " 473 474 , , , 475 , . 476 477 . 478 479 . . 480 , , . 481 . 482 . 483 484 , 485 , 486 . . 487 . 488 , 489 , 490 . - 491 , , , 492 . 493 . 494 - - . , 495 , , , 496 , . 497 498 , 499 . 500 , , 501 - , , 502 ; , , 503 . , 504 , . 505 506 " . " 507 . 508 . 509 510 " , " , " 511 . " , " - - . " 512 513 . " , ! . " 514 , , " , ? " 515 516 , ; 517 , " . , . " 518 , . 519 520 , 521 , 522 , , , 523 , - , . , 524 , , 525 , . 526 527 . 528 . 529 530 " ? " . " ! 531 . , 532 . " 533 534 , 535 . 536 537 " , , " . " 538 - - . " 539 540 , , 541 , , 542 . ? 543 544 . , , 545 - - 546 547 " , , 548 . " 549 550 . , , 551 ; , 552 , . " 553 - - , . 554 , ( ) 555 . " 556 557 . . , , 558 . 559 , , . 560 561 " , 562 . . 563 ! " 564 565 ; . 566 ; , 567 , , " , " , 568 . 569 ; . , 570 , , 571 572 . , 573 . , 574 575 . 576 577 , 578 . , 579 , 580 . , 581 , , , 582 , 583 584 , , 585 , , . . 586 . 587 588 " " ; , " 589 . . 590 - - - - . " 591 592 " - - " , . 593 . 594 , . . 595 . - - 596 597 " , ! " 598 599 " ! " , . 600 601 " " 602 , . 603 604 605 606 607 608 , - - . 609 - - , ; , 610 , , 611 . 612 613 614 . 615 - . 616 ; 617 , , 618 . 619 620 , 621 . 622 ; , , 623 . , 624 . 625 626 - , 627 . , . 628 ; ; , 629 , , 630 . 631 , , ; 632 ; 633 , , , 634 , 635 . 636 637 . . 638 , , . 639 , , , 640 , , 641 . 642 643 ; , 644 . - - 645 646 " , , , " . 647 648 , 649 650 . 651 652 , , 653 . 654 , , , 655 . , , 656 . ; 657 , . 658 659 , , 660 . , - - 661 662 " . 663 , , , , 664 - - ! , 665 , ! , 666 , - - , . " 667 668 . 669 670 " ? " , . 671 672 " , ! , . " 673 674 " , , " , 675 . 676 677 , , . 678 679 . . 680 , 681 . 682 683 " ? " . 684 685 " , . " 686 687 " , " 688 , " ? " 689 690 691 692 693 694 , 695 , . 696 697 ; - ; . 698 . 699 , , 700 . 701 702 , , 703 - , 704 705 706 . 707 708 . . 709 , . 710 711 , , . 712 " , " , , 713 . 714 715 , , 716 - ; , " , " 717 , 718 , " . " 719 720 , , , . 721 , . 722 , 723 , . 724 725 , , 726 ; , ! , 727 . 728 729 . " ! " 730 . , . " ! ! 731 ? " 732 733 , 734 , , 735 . 736 . , 737 . . 738 739 740 , ; 741 , , 742 " , " . 743 . , 744 . 745 , 746 . 747 748 , , , 749 . 750 751 , 752 , , , 753 , - - 754 755 " ! . ! " 756 757 " , ; ! . " 758 759 . 760 761 " ; ! " 762 763 . 764 ; , - - 765 766 " ! . ; - - " 767 , " , ! " 768 769 " , - - , " , . " 770 ; 771 , . " 772 773 " ! " . 774 775 , 776 . 777 778 " ! - . , 779 780 , 781 ! " 782 783 . 784 ( ) , - - 785 786 " ! ! " 787 788 , 789 , . 790 - - 791 792 " ! ! " 793 794 . , 795 . 796 797 " . 798 . , , , 799 ; 800 . , 801 . , 802 , , , 803 . " 804 805 . 806 . , 807 - - 808 . 809 810 " , " , " , 811 . " 812 813 " , " , " . " 814 815 816 . 817 . 818 819 820 821 822 823 . , 824 , 825 . , , 826 . 827 , , , 828 . 829 830 , 831 " , " . 832 , 833 . . 834 , , , , , 835 , 836 . 837 . 838 839 , , , , 840 , . 841 842 " " , 843 , 844 , . 845 846 ; 847 . , , ; 848 . 849 . 850 851 , , . ; 852 - , 853 , , , 854 . 855 856 ; 857 - , , , - . 858 , , , 859 . 860 861 , 862 , " " 863 , , , 864 , . . 865 , , 866 . 867 868 . , 869 ; , 870 , , 871 , , , , . 872 873 . , 874 . 875 876 , , , 877 , . 878 879 , . 880 881 , 882 883 884 . , 885 . 886 , , , 887 , 888 . 889 , ; , 890 , , , , 891 , 892 893 . 894 895 ; , 896 , , 897 " . " 898 899 . - 900 - , , 901 . 902 , , 903 . 904 905 , . 906 , , , 907 , . 908 , - , . 909 , . 910 . 911 , , . 912 913 ; 914 . 915 916 . . 917 , , - - ! 918 919 , , . 920 , , ; 921 ; 922 , . 923 924 , , . 925 , 926 - ; 927 928 , , , , 929 . 930 931 , , , 932 , . - , 933 , , - 934 . 935 936 . 937 938 , , 939 ! , 940 , , 941 . 942 , . , 943 , 944 945 . 946 947 , , 948 . " , " " , " " 949 , " , . , 950 . , , 951 , , , , 952 . 953 954 955 . , 956 , . 957 . , " " 958 - - , ? 959 960 , , , 961 , , , , 962 . , 963 , " " 964 . 965 " " ; , 966 " . " 967 ! 968 969 , , 970 , , 971 . 972 , 973 , . 974 975 , , - - 976 977 " , ! ! ! 978 ! " 979 980 " . " " , ? " 981 982 983 . 984 985 , 986 . , 987 . 988 989 , , " , 990 . " 991 992 , 993 , , " ! " . 994 995 996 . ; . 997 , , 998 , 999 - . 1000