Page 251 - madame-bovary

himself in an undertone, and with his usual low whistle—
‘Good! we shall see! we shall see!’
She was thinking how to get out of this when the servant
coming in put on the mantelpiece a small roll of blue pa-
per ‘from Monsieur Derozeray’s.’ Emma pounced upon and
opened it. It contained fifteen napoleons; it was the account.
She heard Charles on the stairs; threw the gold to the back
of her drawer, and took out the key.
Three days after Lheureux reappeared.
‘I have an arrangement to suggest to you,’ he said. ‘If, in-
stead of the sum agreed on, you would take—‘
‘Here it is,’ she said placing fourteen napoleons in his
hand.
The tradesman was dumfounded. Then, to conceal his
disappointment, he was profuse in apologies and proffers
of service, all of which Emma declined; then she remained
a few moments fingering in the pocket of her apron the two
five-franc pieces that he had given her in change. She prom-
ised herself she would economise in order to pay back later
on. ‘Pshaw!’ she thought, ‘he won’t think about it again.’
Besides the riding-whip with its silver-gilt handle, Ro-
dolphe had received a seal with the motto Amor nel cor*
furthermore, a scarf for a muffler, and, finally, a cigar-case
exactly like the Viscount’s, that Charles had formerly picked
up in the road, and that Emma had kept. These presents,
however, humiliated him; he refused several; she insisted,
and he ended by obeying, thinking her tyrannical and over-
exacting.
*A loving heart.

0 Madame Bovary