Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Madame Bovary“I have come,” she said, “to beg you, sir—”She was afraid of dirtying it. The notary replied in a gallant“What, madame? I am listening.”tone—And she began explaining her position to him. Monsieur “Beautiful things spoil nothing.”Guillaumin knew it, being secretly associated with the Then she tried to move him, and, growing moved herself,linendraper, from whom he always got capital for the loans she began telling him about the poorness of her home, heron mortgages that he was asked to make.worries, her wants. He could understand that; an elegantSo he knew (and better than she herself) the long story of the woman! and, without leaving off eating, he had turned completelyround towards her, so that his knee brushed against herbills, small at first, bearing different names as endorsers, made outat long dates, and constantly renewed up to the day, when, gatheringtogether all the protested bills, the shopkeeper had bidden his But when she asked for a thousand sous, he closed his lips,boot, whose sole curled round as it smoked against the stove.friend Vincart take in his own name all the necessary proceedings, and declared he was very sorry he had not had the managementof her fortune before, for there were hundreds of waysnot wishing to pass for a tiger with his fellow-citizens.She mingled her story with recriminations against Lheureux, very convenient, even for a lady, of turning her money toto which the notary replied from time to time with some account. They might, either in the turf-peats of Grumesnilinsignificant word. Eating his cutlet and drinking his tea, he or building-ground at Havre, almost without risk, have venturedon some excellent speculations; and he let her consumeburied his chin in his sky-blue cravat, into which were thrusttwo diamond pins, held together by a small gold chain; and herself with rage at the thought of the fabulous sums that shehe smiled a singular smile, in a sugary, ambiguous fashion. would certainly have made.But noticing that her feet were damp, he said—“How was it,” he went on, “that you didn’t come to me?”“Do get closer to the stove; put your feet up against the “I hardly know,” she said.porcelain.”“Why, hey? Did I frighten you so much? It is I, on the con-258