Emma, giving up all chance of hearing any details, left the pharmacy;

for Monsieur Homais had taken up the thread of his vituperations.

However, he was growing calmer, and was now grumbling in a paternal tone

whilst he fanned himself with his skull-cap.

"It is not that I entirely disapprove of the work. Its author was a

doctor! There are certain scientific points in it that it is not ill a

man should know, and I would even venture to say that a man must know.

But later--later! At any rate, not till you are man yourself and your

temperament is formed."

When Emma knocked at the door. Charles, who was waiting for her, came

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forward with open arms and said to her with tears in his voice-"Ah! my dear!"

And he bent over her gently to kiss her. But at the contact of his lips

the memory of the other seized her, and she passed her hand over her

face shuddering.

But she made answer, "Yes, I know, I know!"

He showed her the letter in which his mother told the event without any

sentimental hypocrisy. She only regretted her husband had not received

the consolations of religion, as he had died at Daudeville, in the

street, at the door of a cafe after a patriotic dinner with some

ex-officers.

Emma gave him back the letter; then at dinner, for appearance's sake,

she affected a certain repugnance. But as he urged her to try, she

resolutely began eating, while Charles opposite her sat motionless in a

dejected attitude.

Now and then he raised his head and gave her a long look full of

distress. Once he sighed, "I should have liked to see him again!"

She was silent. At last, understanding that she must say something, "How

old was your father?" she asked.

"Fifty-eight."

"Ah!"

And that was all.

A quarter of an hour after he added, "My poor mother! what will become

of her now?"

She made a gesture that signified she did not know. Seeing her so

taciturn, Charles imagined her much affected, and forced himself to say

nothing, not to reawaken this sorrow which moved him. And, shaking off

his own-"Did you enjoy yourself yesterday?" he asked.

"Yes."

When the cloth was removed, Bovary did not rise, nor did Emma; and as

she looked at him, the monotony of the spectacle drove little by little

all pity from her heart. He seemed to her paltry, weak, a cipher--in

a word, a poor thing in every way. How to get rid of him? What an

interminable evening! Something stupefying like the fumes of opium

seized her.




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