Page 273 - madame-bovary

will the spasm passed; then—
‘It is nothing,’ she said, ‘it is nothing! It is nervousness.
Sit down and go on eating.’ For she dreaded lest he should
begin questioning her, attending to her, that she should not
be left alone.
Charles, to obey her, sat down again, and he spat the
stones of the apricots into his hands, afterwards putting
them on his plate.
Suddenly a blue tilbury passed across the square at a
rapid trot. Emma uttered a cry and fell back rigid to the
ground.
In fact, Rodolphe, after many reflections, had decided to
set out for Rouen. Now, as from La Huchette to Buchy there
is no other way than by Yonville, he had to go through the
village, and Emma had recognised him by the rays of the
lanterns, which like lightning flashed through the twilight.
The chemist, at the tumult which broke out in the house
ran thither. The table with all the plates was upset; sauce,
meat, knives, the salt, and cruet-stand were strewn over the
room; Charles was calling for help; Berthe, scared, was cry-
ing; and Felicite, whose hands trembled, was unlacing her
mistress, whose whole body shivered convulsively.
‘I’ll run to my laboratory for some aromatic vinegar,’ said
the druggist.
Then as she opened her eyes on smelling the bottle—
‘I was sure of it,’ he remarked; ‘that would wake any dead
person for you!’
‘Speak to us,’ said Charles; ‘collect yourself; it is your
Charles, who loves you. Do you know me? See! here is your

Madame Bovary