Page 141 - madame-bovary

open-mouthed, he watched Emma’s look, who was walking
up and down undecided amid these goods. From time to
time, as if to remove some dust, he filliped with his nail the
silk of the scarves spread out at full length, and they rustled
with a little noise, making in the green twilight the gold
spangles of their tissue scintillate like little stars.
‘How much are they?’
‘A mere nothing,’ he replied, ‘a mere nothing. But there’s
no hurry; whenever it’s convenient. We are not Jews.’
She reflected for a few moments, and ended by again
declining Monsieur Lheureux’s offer. He replied quite
unconcernedly—
‘Very well. We shall understand one another by and by. I
have always got on with ladies—if I didn’t with my own!’
Emma smiled.
‘I wanted to tell you,’ he went on good-naturedly, after
his joke, ‘that it isn’t the money I should trouble about. Why,
I could give you some, if need be.’
She made a gesture of surprise.
‘Ah!’ said he quickly and in a low voice, ‘I shouldn’t have
to go far to find you some, rely on that.’
And he began asking after Pere Tellier, the proprietor of
the ‘Cafe Francais,’ whom Monsieur Bovary was then at-
tending.
‘What’s the matter with Pere Tellier? He coughs so that
he shakes his whole house, and I’m afraid he’ll soon want a
deal covering rather than a flannel vest. He was such a rake
as a young man! Those sort of people, madame, have not
the least regularity; he’s burnt up with brandy. Still it’s sad,

1 0 Madame Bovary