Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Madame BovaryChapter Sixlost in the long line of white veils, marked off here and thereby the stuff black hoods of the good sisters bending overONE EVENING when the window was open, and she, sitting by their prie-Dieu. At mass on Sundays, when she looked up,it, had been watching Lestiboudois, the beadle, trimming the she saw the gentle face of the Virgin amid the blue smoke ofbox, she suddenly heard the Angelus ringing.the rising incense. Then she was moved; she felt herself weakIt was the beginning of April, when the primroses are in and quite deserted, like the down of a bird whirled by thebloom, and a warm wind blows over the flower-beds newly tempest, and it was unconsciously that she went towards theturned, and the gardens, like women, seem to be getting ready church, included to no matter what devotions, so that herfor the summer fetes. Through the bars of the arbour and away soul was absorbed and all existence lost in it.beyond, the river seen in the fields, meandering through the On the Place she met Lestivoudois on his way back, for, ingrass in wandering curves. The evening vapours rose between order not to shorten his day’s labour, he preferred interruptinghis work, then beginning it again, so that he rang thethe leafless poplars, touching their outlines with a violet tint,paler and more transparent than a subtle gauze caught athwart Angelus to suit his own convenience. Besides, the ringing overtheir branches. In the distance cattle moved about; neither their a little earlier warned the lads of catechism hour.steps nor their lowing could be heard; and the bell, still ringing Already a few who had arrived were playing marbles on thethrough the air, kept up its peaceful lamentation.stones of the cemetery. Others, astride the wall, swung theirWith this repeated tinkling the thoughts of the young legs, kicking with their clogs the large nettles growing betweenthe little enclosure and the newest graves. This was thewoman lost themselves in old memories of her youth andschool-days. She remembered the great candlesticks that rose only green spot. All the rest was but stones, always coveredabove the vases full of flowers on the altar, and the tabernacle with a fine powder, despite the vestry-broom.with its small columns. She would have liked to be once more The children in list shoes ran about there as if it were an96