Page 281 - madame-bovary

her. He inquired after her health, gave her news, exhorted
her to religion, in a coaxing little prattle that was not with-
out its charm. The mere thought of his cassock comforted
her.
One day, when at the height of her illness, she had
thought herself dying, and had asked for the communion;
and, while they were making the preparations in her room
for the sacrament, while they were turning the night table
covered with syrups into an altar, and while Felicite was
strewing dahlia flowers on the floor, Emma felt some pow-
er passing over her that freed her from her pains, from all
perception, from all feeling. Her body, relieved, no longer
thought; another life was beginning; it seemed to her that
her being, mounting toward God, would be annihilated in
that love like a burning incense that melts into vapour. The
bed-clothes were sprinkled with holy water, the priest drew
from the holy pyx the white wafer; and it was fainting with
a celestial joy that she put out her lips to accept the body
of the Saviour presented to her. The curtains of the alcove
floated gently round her like clouds, and the rays of the two
tapers burning on the night-table seemed to shine like daz-
zling halos. Then she let her head fall back, fancying she
heard in space the music of seraphic harps, and perceived in
an azure sky, on a golden throne in the midst of saints hold-
ing green palms, God the Father, resplendent with majesty,
who with a sign sent to earth angels with wings of fire to
carry her away in their arms.
This splendid vision dwelt in her memory as the most
beautiful thing that it was possible to dream, so that now

0 Madame Bovary