Page 178 - madame-bovary

erchiefs seemed whiter than snow, shone in the sun, and
relieved with the motley colours the sombre monotony of
the frock-coats and blue smocks. The neighbouring farm-
ers’ wives, when they got off their horses, pulled out the
long pins that fastened around them their dresses, turned
up for fear of mud; and the husbands, for their part, in order
to save their hats, kept their handkerchiefs around them,
holding one corner between their teeth.
The crowd came into the main street from both ends of
the village. People poured in from the lanes, the alleys, the
houses; and from time to time one heard knockers banging
against doors closing behind women with their gloves, who
were going out to see the fete. What was most admired were
two long lamp-stands covered with lanterns, that flanked a
platform on which the authorities were to sit. Besides this
there were against the four columns of the town hall four
kinds of poles, each bearing a small standard of greenish
cloth, embellished with inscriptions in gold letters.
On one was written, ‘To Commerce”; on the other, ‘To
Agriculture”; on the third, ‘To Industry”; and on the fourth,
‘To the Fine Arts.’
But the jubilation that brightened all faces seemed to
darken that of Madame Lefrancois, the innkeeper. Stand-
ing on her kitchen-steps she muttered to herself, ‘What
rubbish! what rubbish! With their canvas booth! Do they
think the prefect will be glad to dine down there under a
tent like a gipsy? They call all this fussing doing good to the
place! Then it wasn’t worth while sending to Neufchatel for
the keeper of a cookshop! And for whom? For cowherds!

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