Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Madame BovaryChapter Nine“Well,” said Rodolphe, sitting down at her side on a footstool,“no; it was because I did not want to come back.”SIX WEEKS PASSED. Rodolphe did not come again. At last oneevening he appeared.The day after the show he had said to himself— “We mustn’tgo back too soon; that would be a mistake.”And at the end of a week he had gone off hunting. After thehunting he had thought it was too late, and then he reasonedthus—“If from the first day she loved me, she must from impatienceto see me again love me more. Let’s go on with it!”And he knew that his calculation had been right when, onentering the room, he saw Emma turn pale.She was alone. The day was drawing in. The small muslincurtain along the windows deepened the twilight, and thegilding 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 answeredhis first conventional phrases.“I,” he said, “have been busy. I have been ill.”“Seriously?” she cried.“Why?”“Can you not guess?”He looked at her again, but so hard that she lowered herhead, blushing. He went on—“Emma!”“Sir,” she said, drawing back a little.“Ah! you see,” replied he in a melancholy voice, “that I wasright not to come back; for this name, this name that fills mywhole soul, and that escaped me, you forbid me to use! MadameBovary! why all the world calls you thus! Besides, it isnot 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 drivesme to despair. Ah! forgive me! I will leave you! Farewell! Iwill go far away, so far that you will never hear of me again;and yet—to-day—I know not what force impelled me towardsyou. For one does not struggle against Heaven; onecannot resist the smile of angels; one is carried away by thatwhich is beautiful, charming, adorable.”134