Page 254 - madame-bovary
P. 254

had taken refuge at her son’s, was not the least scandalised
       of the women-folk. Many other things displeased her. First,
       Charles  had  not  attended  to  her  advice  about  the  forbid-
       ding of novels; then the ‘ways of the house’ annoyed her;
       she allowed herself to make some remarks, and there were
       quarrels, especially one on account of Felicite.
          Madame  Bovary  senior,  the  evening  before,  passing
       along the passage, had surprised her in company of a man—
       a man with a brown collar, about forty years old, who, at the
       sound of her step, had quickly escaped through the kitchen.
       Then  Emma  began  to  laugh,  but  the  good  lady  grew  an-
       gry, declaring that unless morals were to be laughed at one
       ought to look after those of one’s servants.
         ‘Where were you brought up?’ asked the daughter-in-law,
       with so impertinent a look that Madame Bovary asked her
       if she were not perhaps defending her own case.
         ‘Leave the room!’ said the young woman, springing up
       with a bound.
         ‘Emma!  Mamma!’  cried  Charles,  trying  to  reconcile
       them.
          But  both  had  fled  in  their  exasperation.  Emma  was
       stamping her feet as she repeated—
         ‘Oh! what manners! What a peasant!’
          He ran to his mother; she was beside herself. She stam-
       mered
         ‘She  is  an  insolent,  giddy-headed  thing,  or  perhaps
       worse!’
         And she was for leaving at once if the other did not apol-
       ogise. So Charles went back again to his wife and implored
   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259