Page 230 - madame-bovary

CHAPTER ELEVEN

e had recently read a eulogy on a new method for cur-
Hing club-foot, and as he was a partisan of progress, he
conceived the patriotic idea that Yonville, in order to keep
to the fore, ought to have some operations for strephopody
or club-foot.
‘For,’ said he to Emma, ‘what risk is there? See—‘ (and
he enumerated on his fingers the advantages of the at-
tempt), ‘success, almost certain relief and beautifying of the
patient, celebrity acquired by the operator. Why, for exam-
ple, should not your husband relieve poor Hippolyte of the
‘Lion d’Or’? Note that he would not fail to tell about his cure
to all the travellers, and then’ (Homais lowered his voice
and looked round him) ‘who is to prevent me from sending
a short paragraph on the subject to the paper? Eh! goodness
me! an article gets about; it is talked of; it ends by making a
snowball! And who knows? who knows?’
In fact, Bovary might succeed. Nothing proved to Emma
that he was not clever; and what a satisfaction for her to have
urged him to a step by which his reputation and fortune
would be increased! She only wished to lean on something
more solid than love.
Charles, urged by the druggist and by her, allowed him-
self to be persuaded. He sent to Rouen for Dr. Duval’s
volume, and every evening, holding his head between both