Page 304 - madame-bovary

CHAPTER ONE

onsieur Leon, while studying law, had gone pretty of-
Mten to the dancing-rooms, where he was even a great
success amongst the grisettes, who thought he had a distin-
guished air. He was the best-mannered of the students; he
wore his hair neither too long nor too short, didn’t spend all
his quarter’s money on the first day of the month, and kept
on good terms with his professors. As for excesses, he had
always abstained from them, as much from cowardice as
from refinement.
Often when he stayed in his room to read, or else when
sitting of an evening under the lime-trees of the Luxem-
bourg, he let his Code fall to the ground, and the memory
of Emma came back to him. But gradually this feeling grew
weaker, and other desires gathered over it, although it still
persisted through them all. For Leon did not lose all hope;
there was for him, as it were, a vague promise floating in
the future, like a golden fruit suspended from some fantas-
tic tree.
Then, seeing her again after three years of absence his
passion reawakened. He must, he thought, at last make up
his mind to possess her. Moreover, his timidity had worn
off by contact with his gay companions, and he returned
to the provinces despising everyone who had not with var-
nished shoes trodden the asphalt of the boulevards. By the

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