Page 235 - madame-bovary

with emotion.
‘No, no! not at all! What next!’
‘ ‘—Performed an operation on a club-footed man.’ I have
not used the scientific term, because you know in a news-
paper everyone would not perhaps understand. The masses
must—‘’
‘No doubt,’ said Bovary; ‘go on!’
‘I proceed,’ said the chemist. ‘Monsieur Bovary, one of
our most distinguished practitioners, performed an op-
eration on a club-footed man called Hippolyte Tautain,
stableman for the last twenty-five years at the hotel of the
‘Lion d’Or,’ kept by Widow Lefrancois, at the Place d’Armes.
The novelty of the attempt, and the interest incident to the
subject, had attracted such a concourse of persons that
there was a veritable obstruction on the threshold of the es-
tablishment. The operation, moreover, was performed as if
by magic, and barely a few drops of blood appeared on the
skin, as though to say that the rebellious tendon had at last
given way beneath the efforts of art. The patient, strangely
enough—we affirm it as an eye-witness—complained of no
pain. His condition up to the present time leaves nothing to
be desired. Everything tends to show that his convelescence
will be brief; and who knows even if at our next village fes-
tivity we shall not see our good Hippolyte figuring in the
bacchic dance in the midst of a chorus of joyous boon-com-
panions, and thus proving to all eyes by his verve and his
capers his complete cure? Honour, then, to the generous sa-
vants! Honour to those indefatigable spirits who consecrate
their vigils to the amelioration or to the alleviation of their

Madame Bovary