Page 117 - madame-bovary

been taken into the house from charity, and who was useful
at the same time as a servant.
The druggist proved the best of neighbours. He gave
Madame Bovary information as to the trades-people, sent
expressly for his own cider merchant, tasted the drink him-
self, and saw that the casks were properly placed in the
cellar; he explained how to set about getting in a supply of
butter cheap, and made an arrangement with Lestiboudois,
the sacristan, who, besides his sacerdotal and funeral func-
tions, looked after the principal gardens at Yonville by the
hour or the year, according to the taste of the customers.
The need of looking after others was not the only thing
that urged the chemist to such obsequious cordiality; there
was a plan underneath it all.
He had infringed the law of the 19th Ventose, year xi.,
article I, which forbade all persons not having a diploma
to practise medicine; so that, after certain anonymous de-
nunciations, Homais had been summoned to Rouen to see
the procurer of the king in his own private room; the mag-
istrate receiving him standing up, ermine on shoulder and
cap on head. It was in the morning, before the court opened.
In the corridors one heard the heavy boots of the gendarmes
walking past, and like a far-off noise great locks that were
shut. The druggist’s ears tingled as if he were about to have
an apoplectic stroke; he saw the depths of dungeons, his
family in tears, his shop sold, all the jars dispersed; and he
was obliged to enter a cafe and take a glass of rum and selt-
zer to recover his spirits.
Little by little the memory of this reprimand grew fainter,

11 Madame Bovary