Page 119 - madame-bovary

tired poses in her armchair, then his happiness knew no
bounds; he got up, embraced her, passed his hands over her
face, called her little mamma, wanted to make her dance,
and half-laughing, half-crying, uttered all kinds of caress-
ing pleasantries that came into his head. The idea of having
begotten a child delighted him. Now he wanted nothing.
He knew human life from end to end, and he sat down to it
with serenity.
Emma at first felt a great astonishment; then was anx-
ious to be delivered that she might know what it was to be a
mother. But not being able to spend as much as she would
have liked, to have a swing-bassinette with rose silk cur-
tains, and embroidered caps, in a fit of bitterness she gave
up looking after the trousseau, and ordered the whole of it
from a village needlewoman, without choosing or discuss-
ing anything. Thus she did not amuse herself with those
preparations that stimulate the tenderness of mothers, and
so her affection was from the very outset, perhaps, to some
extent attenuated.
As Charles, however, spoke of the boy at every meal, she
soon began to think of him more consecutively.
She hoped for a son; he would be strong and dark; she
would call him George; and this idea of having a male child
was like an expected revenge for all her impotence in the
past. A man, at least, is free; he may travel over passions
and over countries, overcome obstacles, taste of the most
far-away pleasures. But a woman is always hampered. At
once inert and flexible, she has against her the weakness of
the flesh and legal dependence. Her will, like the veil of her

11 Madame Bovary