Page 261 - madame-bovary

luggage to Lheureux whence it would be taken direct to the
‘Hirondelle,’ so that no one would have any suspicion. And
in all this there never was any allusion to the child. Rodol-
phe avoided speaking of her; perhaps he no longer thought
about it.
He wished to have two more weeks before him to ar-
range some affairs; then at the end of a week he wanted two
more; then he said he was ill; next he went on a journey. The
month of August passed, and, after all these delays, they
decided that it was to be irrevocably fixed for the 4th Sep-
tember—a Monday.
At length the Saturday before arrived.
Rodolphe came in the evening earlier than usual.
‘Everything is ready?’ she asked him.
‘Yes.’
Then they walked round a garden-bed, and went to sit
down near the terrace on the kerb-stone of the wall.
‘You are sad,’ said Emma.
‘No; why?’
And yet he looked at her strangely in a tender fashion.
‘It is because you are going away?’ she went on; ‘because
you are leaving what is dear to you—your life? Ah! I under-
stand. I have nothing in the world! you are all to me; so shall
I be to you. I will be your people, your country; I will tend,
I will love you!’
‘How sweet you are!’ he said, seizing her in his arms.
‘Really!’ she said with a voluptuous laugh. ‘Do you love
me? Swear it then!’
‘Do I love you—love you? I adore you, my love.’

0 Madame Bovary