Page 204 - madame-bovary

And he once more ran off to the captain. The latter was
going back to see his lathe again.
‘Perhaps you would not do ill,’ Homais said to him, ‘to
send one of your men, or to go yourself—‘
‘Leave me alone!’ answered the tax-collector. ‘It’s all
right!’
‘Do not be uneasy,’ said the druggist, when he returned
to his friends. ‘Monsieur Binet has assured me that all pre-
cautions have been taken. No sparks have fallen; the pumps
are full. Let us go to rest.’
‘Ma foi! I want it,’ said Madame Homais, yawning at large.
‘But never mind; we’ve had a beautiful day for our fete.’
Rodolphe repeated in a low voice, and with a tender look,
‘Oh, yes! very beautiful!’
And having bowed to one another, they separated.
Two days later, in the ‘Final de Rouen,’ there was a long
article on the show. Homais had composed it with verve the
very next morning.
‘Why these festoons, these flowers, these garlands?
Whither hurries this crowd like the waves of a furious sea
under the torrents of a tropical sun pouring its heat upon
our heads?’
Then he spoke of the condition of the peasants. Certainly
the Government was doing much, but not enough. ‘Cour-
age!’ he cried to it; ‘a thousand reforms are indispensable;
let us accomplish them!’ Then touching on the entry of the
councillor, he did not forget ‘the martial air of our militia;’
nor ‘our most merry village maidens;’ nor the ‘bald-headed
old men like patriarchs who were there, and of whom some,

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