Page 248 - madame-bovary

vulgar ways, to be so dull as when they found themselves
together after her meeting with Rodolphe. Then, while play-
ing the spouse and virtue, she was burning at the thought
of that head whose black hair fell in a curl over the sun-
burnt brow, of that form at once so strong and elegant, of
that man, in a word, who had such experience in his rea-
soning, such passion in his desires. It was for him that she
filed her nails with the care of a chaser, and that there was
never enough cold-cream for her skin, nor of patchouli for
her handkerchiefs. She loaded herself with bracelets, rings,
and necklaces. When he was coming she filled the two large
blue glass vases with roses, and prepared her room and her
person like a courtesan expecting a prince. The servant had
to be constantly washing linen, and all day Felicite did not
stir from the kitchen, where little Justin, who often kept her
company, watched her at work.
With his elbows on the long board on which she was
ironing, he greedily watched all these women’s clothes
spread about him, the dimity petticoats, the fichus, the col-
lars, and the drawers with running strings, wide at the hips
and growing narrower below.
‘What is that for?’ asked the young fellow, passing his
hand over the crinoline or the hooks and eyes.
‘Why, haven’t you ever seen anything?’ Felicite answered
laughing. ‘As if your mistress, Madame Homais, didn’t wear
the same.’
‘Oh, I daresay! Madame Homais!’ And he added with a
meditative air, ‘As if she were a lady like madame!’
But Felicite grew impatient of seeing him hanging round