"Come what may come!" she said to herself. "And then, who knows? Why, at

any moment could not some extraordinary event occur? Lheureux even might

die!"

At nine o'clock in the morning she was awakened by the sound of voices

in the Place. There was a crowd round the market reading a large bill

fixed to one of the posts, and she saw Justin, who was climbing on to

a stone and tearing down the bill. But at this moment the rural guard

seized him by the collar. Monsieur Homais came out of his shop, and Mere

Lefrangois, in the midst of the crowd, seemed to be perorating.

"Madame! madame!" cried Felicite, running in, "it's abominable!"

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And the poor girl, deeply moved, handed her a yellow paper that she had

just torn off the door. Emma read with a glance that all her furniture

was for sale.

Then they looked at one another silently. The servant and mistress had

no secret one from the other. At last Felicite sighed-"If I were you, madame, I should go to Monsieur Guillaumin."

"Do you think--"

And this question meant to say-"You who know the house through the servant, has the master spoken

sometimes of me?"

"Yes, you'd do well to go there."

She dressed, put on her black gown, and her hood with jet beads, and

that she might not be seen (there was still a crowd on the Place), she

took the path by the river, outside the village.

She reached the notary's gate quite breathless. The sky was sombre, and

a little snow was falling. At the sound of the bell, Theodore in a

red waistcoat appeared on the steps; he came to open the door almost

familiarly, as to an acquaintance, and showed her into the dining-room.

A large porcelain stove crackled beneath a cactus that filled up the

niche in the wall, and in black wood frames against the oak-stained

paper hung Steuben's "Esmeralda" and Schopin's "Potiphar." The

ready-laid table, the two silver chafing-dishes, the crystal door-knobs,

the parquet and the furniture, all shone with a scrupulous, English

cleanliness; the windows were ornamented at each corner with stained

glass.

"Now this," thought Emma, "is the dining-room I ought to have."

The notary came in pressing his palm-leaf dressing-gown to his breast

with his left arm, while with the other hand he raised and quickly put

on again his brown velvet cap, pretentiously cocked on the right side,

whence looked out the ends of three fair curls drawn from the back of

the head, following the line of his bald skull.




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