Page 211 - madame-bovary

shimmered in the warm atmosphere. The earth, ruddy like
the powder of tobacco, deadened the noise of their steps,
and with the edge of their shoes the horses as they walked
kicked the fallen fir cones in front of them.
Rodolphe and Emma thus went along the skirt of the
wood. She turned away from time to time to avoid his look,
and then she saw only the pine trunks in lines, whose mo-
notonous succession made her a little giddy. The horses
were panting; the leather of the saddles creaked.
Just as they were entering the forest the sun shone out.
‘God protects us!’ said Rodolphe.
‘Do you think so?’ she said.
‘Forward! forward!’ he continued.
He ‘tchk’d’ with his tongue. The two beasts set off at a
trot.
Long ferns by the roadside caught in Emma’s stirrup.
Rodolphe leant forward and removed them as they rode
along. At other times, to turn aside the branches, he passed
close to her, and Emma felt his knee brushing against her
leg. The sky was now blue, the leaves no longer stirred. There
were spaces full of heather in flower, and plots of violets al-
ternated with the confused patches of the trees that were
grey, fawn, or golden coloured, according to the nature of
their leaves. Often in the thicket was heard the fluttering
of wings, or else the hoarse, soft cry of the ravens flying off
amidst the oaks.
They dismounted. Rodolphe fastened up the horses. She
walked on in front on the moss between the paths. But her
long habit got in her way, although she held it up by the skirt;

10 Madame Bovary