Page 164 - madame-bovary

verse of the medal. And one is constantly obliged to keep
one’s hand in one’s pocket there. Thus, we will suppose you
are in a public garden. An individual presents himself, well
dressed, even wearing an order, and whom one would take
for a diplomatist. He approaches you, he insinuates himself;
offers you a pinch of snuff, or picks up your hat. Then you
become more intimate; he takes you to a cafe, invites you to
his country-house, introduces you, between two drinks, to
all sorts of people; and three-fourths of the time it’s only to
plunder your watch or lead you into some pernicious step.
‘That is true,’ said Charles; ‘but I was thinking especially
of illnesses—of typhoid fever, for example, that attacks stu-
dents from the provinces.’
Emma shuddered.
‘Because of the change of regimen,’ continued the chemist,
‘and of the perturbation that results therefrom in the whole
system. And then the water at Paris, don’t you know! The
dishes at restaurants, all the spiced food, end by heating the
blood, and are not worth, whatever people may say of them,
a good soup. For my own part, I have always preferred plain
living; it is more healthy. So when I was studying pharmacy
at Rouen, I boarded in a boarding house; I dined with the
professors.’
And thus he went on, expounding his opinions generally
and his personal likings, until Justin came to fetch him for
a mulled egg that was wanted.
‘Not a moment’s peace!’ he cried; ‘always at it! I can’t go
out for a minute! Like a plough-horse, I have always to be
moiling and toiling. What drudgery!’ Then, when he was at

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