Page 203 - madame-bovary

some advice to Binet.
The pyrotechnic pieces sent to Monsieur Tuvache had,
through an excess of caution, been shut up in his cellar, and
so the damp powder would not light, and the principal set
piece, that was to represent a dragon biting his tail, failed
completely. Now and then a meagre Roman-candle went off;
then the gaping crowd sent up a shout that mingled with the
cry of the women, whose waists were being squeezed in the
darkness. Emma silently nestled against Charles’s shoulder;
then, raising her chin, she watched the luminous rays of the
rockets against the dark sky. Rodolphe gazed at her in the
light of the burning lanterns.
They went out one by one. The stars shone out. A few
crops of rain began to fall. She knotted her fichu round her
bare head.
At this moment the councillor’s carriage came out from
the inn.
His coachman, who was drunk, suddenly dozed off, and
one could see from the distance, above the hood, between
the two lanterns, the mass of his body, that swayed from
right to left with the giving of the traces.
‘Truly,’ said the druggist, ‘one ought to proceed most rig-
orously against drunkenness! I should like to see written up
weekly at the door of the town hall on a board ad hoc* the
names of all those who during the week got intoxicated on
alcohol. Besides, with regard to statistics, one would thus
have, as it were, public records that one could refer to in
case of need. But excuse me!’
*Specifically for that.

0 Madame Bovary