Page 159 - madame-bovary

This apprehension soon changed into impatience, and
then Paris from afar sounded its fanfare of masked balls
with the laugh of grisettes. As he was to finish reading there,
why not set out at once? What prevented him? And he
began making home-preparations; he arranged his occupa-
tions beforehand. He furnished in his head an apartment.
He would lead an artist’s life there! He would take lessons
on the guitar! He would have a dressing-gown, a Basque
cap, blue velvet slippers! He even already was admiring two
crossed foils over his chimney-piece, with a death’s head on
the guitar above them.
The difficulty was the consent of his mother; nothing,
however, seemed more reasonable. Even his employer ad-
vised him to go to some other chambers where he could
advance more rapidly. Taking a middle course, then, Leon
looked for some place as second clerk at Rouen; found none,
and at last wrote his mother a long letter full of details, in
which he set forth the reasons for going to live at Paris im-
mediately. She consented.
He did not hurry. Every day for a month Hivert carried
boxes, valises, parcels for him from Yonville to Rouen and
from Rouen to Yonville; and when Leon had packed up
his wardrobe, had his three arm-chairs restuffed, bought
a stock of neckties, in a word, had made more preparations
than for a voyage around the world, he put it off from week
to week, until he received a second letter from his mother
urging him to leave, since he wanted to pass his examina-
tion before the vacation.
When the moment for the farewells had come, Madame

1 Madame Bovary