Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Madame Bovaryher husband. The worst days of the past seemed enviable to Emma answered that she thought she could do without. Theher. All was forgotten beneath the instinctive regret of such a shopkeeper was not to be beaten.long habit, and from time to time whilst she sewed, a big tear “I beg your pardon,” he said, “but I should like to have arolled along her nose and hung suspended there a moment. private talk with you.” Then in a low voice, “It’s about thatEmma was thinking that it was scarcely forty-eight hours since affair—you know.”they had been together, far from the world, all in a frenzy of Charles crimsoned to his ears. “Oh, yes! certainly.” And injoy, and not having eyes enough to gaze upon each other. She his confusion, turning to his wife, “Couldn’t you, my darling?”tried to recall the slightest details of that past day. But thepresence of her husband and mother-in-law worried her. She She seemed to understand him, for she rose; and Charleswould have liked to hear nothing, to see nothing, so as not to said to his mother, “It is nothing particular. No doubt, somedisturb the meditation on her love, that, do what she would, household trifle.” He did not want her to know the story ofbecame lost in external sensations.the bill, fearing her reproaches.She was unpicking the lining of a dress, and the strips were As soon as they were alone, Monsieur Lheureux in sufficientlyclear terms began to congratulate Emma on the inher-scattered around her. Madame Bovary senior was plying herscissor without looking up, and Charles, in his list slippers itance, then to talk of indifferent matters, of the espaliers, ofand his old brown surtout that he used as a dressing-gown, the harvest, and of his own health, which was always so-so,sat with both hands in his pockets, and did not speak either; always having ups and downs. In fact, he had to work devilishhard, although he didn’t make enough, in spite of all peoplenear them Berthe, in a little white pinafore, was raking sandin the walks with her spade. Suddenly she saw Monsieur said, to find butter for his bread.Lheureux, the linendraper, come in through the gate.Emma let him talk on. She had bored herself so prodigiouslythe last two He came to offer his services “under the sad circumstances.”days.216