Madame Bovary - Penn State University

FlaubertDancing had begun. Guests were arriving. There was some orchestra, she glided forward with slight movements of thecrushing.neck. A smile rose to her lips at certain delicate phrases of theShe sat down on a form near the door.violin, that sometimes played alone while the other instrumentswere silent; one could hear the clear clink of the louisThe quadrille over, the floor was occupied by groups ofmen standing up and talking and servants in livery bearing d’or that were being thrown down upon the card tables in thelarge trays. Along the line of seated women painted fans were next room; then all struck again, the cornet-a-piston utteredfluttering, bouquets half hid smiling faces, and gold stopperedscent-bottles were turned in partly-closed hands, whose hands touched and parted; the same eyes falling before youits sonorous note, feet marked time, skirts swelled and rustled,white gloves outlined the nails and tightened on the flesh at met yours again.the wrists. Lace trimmings, diamond brooches, medallion A few men (some fifteen or so), of twenty-five to forty,bracelets trembled on bodices, gleamed on breasts, clinked scattered here and there among the dancers or talking at theon bare arms.doorways, distinguished themselves from the crowd by a certainair of breeding, whatever their differences in age, dress, orThe hair, well-smoothed over the temples and knotted atthe nape, bore crowns, or bunches, or sprays of mytosotis, face.jasmine, pomegranate blossoms, ears of corn, and corn-flowers.Calmly seated in their places, mothers with forbidding hair, brought forward in curls towards the temples, glossyTheir clothes, better made, seemed of finer cloth, and theircountenances were wearing red turbans.with more delicate pomades. They had the complexion ofEmma’s heart beat rather faster when, her partner holding wealth—that clear complexion that is heightened by the pallorof porcelain, the shimmer of satin, the veneer of old fur-her by the tips of the fingers, she took her place in a line withthe dancers, and waited for the first note to start. But her niture, and that an ordered regimen of exquisite nurture maintainsat its best. Their necks moved easily in their low emotion soon vanished, and, swaying to the rhythm of thecravats,45