Madame Bovary - Penn State University

a white house beyond a grass mound ornamented by a Cupid,his finger on his lips; two brass vases are at each end of aflight of steps; scutcheons* blaze upon the door. It is thenotary’s house, and the finest in the place.The Church is on the other side of the street, twenty pacesfarther down, at the entrance of the square. The little cemeterythat surrounds it, closed in by a wall breast high, is sofull of graves that the old stones, level with the ground, forma continuous pavement, on which the grass of itself has markedout regular green squares. The church was rebuilt during thelast years of the reign of Charles X. The wooden roof is beginningto rot from the top, and here and there has blackhollows in its blue colour. Over the door, where the organshould be, is a loft for the men, with a spiral staircase thatreverberates under their wooden shoes.The daylight coming through the plain glass windows fallsobliquely upon the pews ranged along the walls, which areadorned here and there with a straw mat bearing beneath itthe words in large letters, “Mr. So-and-so’s pew.” Farther on,at a spot where the building narrows, the confessional formsMadame Bovarya pendant to a statuette of the Virgin, clothed in a satin robe,coifed with a tulle veil sprinkled with silver stars, and withred cheeks, like an idol of the Sandwich Islands; and, finally,a copy of the “Holy Family, presented by the Minister of theInterior,” overlooking the high altar, between four candlesticks,closes in the perspective. The choir stalls, of deal wood, havebeen left unpainted.The market, that is to say, a tiled roof supported by sometwenty posts, occupies of itself about half the public squareof Yonville. The town hall, constructed “from the designs ofa Paris architect,” is a sort of Greek temple that forms thecorner next to the chemist’s shop. On the ground-floor arethree Ionic columns and on the first floor a semicircular gallery,while the dome that crowns it is occupied by a Galliccock, resting one foot upon the “Charte” and holding in theother the scales of Justice.But that which most attracts the eye is opposite the Liond’Or inn, the chemist’s shop of Monsieur Homais. In theevening especially its argand lamp is lit up and the red andgreen jars that embellish his shop-front throw far across the*The panonceaux that have to be hung over the doors of notaries.street their two streams of colour; then across them as if in62