Madame Bovary - Penn State University

FlaubertChapter TwowoAs he was a good deal bored at Yonville, where he was aclerk at the notary’s, Monsieur Guillaumin, Monsieur LeonEMMA GOT OUT FIRST, then Felicite, Monsieur Lheureux, and Dupuis (it was he who was the second habitue of the “Liona nurse, and they had to wake up Charles in his corner, where d’Or”) frequently put back his dinner-hour in hope that somehe had slept soundly since night set in.traveler might come to the inn, with whom he could chat inHomais introduced himself; he offered his homages to madame the evening. On the days when his work was done early, heand his respects to monsieur; said he was charmed to have been had, for want of something else to do, to come punctually,able to render them some slight service, and added with a cordial and endure from soup to cheese a tete-a-tete with Binet. Itair that he had ventured to invite himself, his wife being away. was therefore with delight that he accepted the landlady’s suggestionthat he should dine in company with the newcomers,When Madame Bovary was in the kitchen she went up tothe chimney.and they passed into the large parlour where MadameWith the tips of her fingers she caught her dress at the knee, Lefrancois, for the purpose of showing off, had had the tableand having thus pulled it up to her ankle, held out her foot in laid for four.its black boot to the fire above the revolving leg of mutton. Homais asked to be allowed to keep on his skull-cap, forThe flame lit up the whole of her, penetrating with a crude fear of coryza; then, turning to his neighbour—light the woof of her gowns, the fine pores of her fair skin, “Madame is no doubt a little fatigued; one gets jolted soand even her eyelids, which she blinked now and again. A abominably in our ‘Hirondelle.’”great red glow passed over her with the blowing of the wind “That is true,” replied Emma; “but moving about alwaysthrough the half-open door.amuses me. I like change of place.”On the other side of the chimney a young man with fair “It is so tedious,” sighed the clerk, “to be always riveted tohair watched her silently.the same places.”69