Page 156 - madame-bovary

elbow.
Berthe fell at the foot of the drawers against the brass
handle, cutting her cheek, which began to bleed, against it.
Madame Bovary sprang to lift her up, broke the bell-rope,
called for the servant with all her might, and she was just
going to curse herself when Charles appeared. It was the
dinner-hour; he had come home.
‘Look, dear!’ said Emma, in a calm voice, ‘the little one
fell down while she was playing, and has hurt herself.’
Charles reassured her; the case was not a serious one,
and he went for some sticking plaster.
Madame Bovary did not go downstairs to the dining-
room; she wished to remain alone to look after the child.
Then watching her sleep, the little anxiety she felt gradually
wore off, and she seemed very stupid to herself, and very
good to have been so worried just now at so little. Berthe, in
fact, no longer sobbed.
Her breathing now imperceptibly raised the cotton cov-
ering. Big tears lay in the corner of the half-closed eyelids,
through whose lashes one could see two pale sunken pupils;
the plaster stuck on her cheek drew the skin obliquely.
‘It is very strange,’ thought Emma, ‘how ugly this child
is!’
When at eleven o’clock Charles came back from the
chemist’s shop, whither he had gone after dinner to return
the remainder of the sticking-plaster, he found his wife
standing by the cradle.
‘I assure you it’s nothing.’ he said, kissing her on the fore-
head. ‘Don’t worry, my poor darling; you will make yourself

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