Page 181 - madame-bovary
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lic—‘ But the druggist stopped, Madame Lefrancois seemed
so preoccupied.
‘Just look at them!’ she said. ‘It’s past comprehension!
Such a cookshop as that!’ And with a shrug of the shoulders
that stretched out over her breast the stitches of her knit-
ted bodice, she pointed with both hands at her rival’s inn,
whence songs were heard issuing. ‘Well, it won’t last long,’
she added. ‘It’ll be over before a week.’
Homais drew back with stupefaction. She came down
three steps and whispered in his ear—
‘What! you didn’t know it? There is to be an execution
in next week. It’s Lheureux who is selling him out; he has
killed him with bills.’
‘What a terrible catastrophe!’ cried the druggist, who
always found expressions in harmony with all imaginable
circumstances.
Then the landlady began telling him the story that she
had heard from Theodore, Monsieur Guillaumin’s servant,
and although she detested Tellier, she blamed Lheureux. He
was ‘a wheedler, a sneak.’
‘There!’ she said. ‘Look at him! he is in the market; he is
bowing to Madame Bovary, who’s got on a green bonnet.
Why, she’s taking Monsieur Boulanger’s arm.’
‘Madame Bovary!’ exclaimed Homais. ‘I must go at once
and pay her my respects. Perhaps she’ll be very glad to have
a seat in the enclosure under the peristyle.’ And, without
heeding Madame Lefrancois, who was calling him back to
tell him more about it, the druggist walked off rapidly with
a smile on his lips, with straight knees, bowing copiously to
1 0 Madame Bovary