Page 289 - madame-bovary

and see dancers kicking about.’
‘Come, come!’ said the cure.
‘Ah! I’ve known some!’ And separating the words of his
sentence, Homais repeated, ‘I—have—known—some!’
‘Well, they were wrong,’ said Bournisien, resigned to
anything.
‘By Jove! they go in for more than that,’ exclaimed the
druggist.
‘Sir!’ replied the ecclesiastic, with such angry eyes that
the druggist was intimidated by them.
‘I only mean to say,’ he replied in less brutal a tone, ‘that
toleration is the surest way to draw people to religion.’
‘That is true! that is true!’ agreed the good fellow, sitting
down again on his chair. But he stayed only a few mo-
ments.
Then, as soon as he had gone, Monsieur Homais said to
the doctor—
‘That’s what I call a cock-fight. I beat him, did you see,
in a way!—Now take my advice. Take madame to the the-
atre, if it were only for once in your life, to enrage one of
these ravens, hang it! If anyone could take my place, I would
accompany you myself. Be quick about it. Lagardy is only
going to give one performance; he’s engaged to go to Eng-
land at a high salary. From what I hear, he’s a regular dog;
he’s rolling in money; he’s taking three mistresses and a
cook along with him. All these great artists burn the can-
dle at both ends; they require a dissolute life, that suits the
imagination to some extent. But they die at the hospital, be-
cause they haven’t the sense when young to lay by. Well, a

Madame Bovary