Page 315 - madame-bovary

out to look at the Place. Emma was not coming yet. He went
up again to the choir.
The nave was reflected in the full fonts with the begin-
ning of the arches and some portions of the glass windows.
But the reflections of the paintings, broken by the marble
rim, were continued farther on upon the flag-stones, like
a many-coloured carpet. The broad daylight from without
streamed into the church in three enormous rays from the
three opened portals. From time to time at the upper end a
sacristan passed, making the oblique genuflexion of devout
persons in a hurry. The crystal lustres hung motionless. In
the choir a silver lamp was burning, and from the side cha-
pels and dark places of the church sometimes rose sounds
like sighs, with the clang of a closing grating, its echo rever-
berating under the lofty vault.
Leon with solemn steps walked along by the walls. Life
had never seemed so good to him. She would come directly,
charming, agitated, looking back at the glances that fol-
lowed her, and with her flounced dress, her gold eyeglass,
her thin shoes, with all sorts of elegant trifles that he had
never enjoyed, and with the ineffable seduction of yielding
virtue. The church like a huge boudoir spread around her;
the arches bent down to gather in the shade the confession
of her love; the windows shone resplendent to illumine her
face, and the censers would burn that she might appear like
an angel amid the fumes of the sweet-smelling odours.
But she did not come. He sat down on a chair, and his
eyes fell upon a blue stained window representing boatmen
carrying baskets. He looked at it long, attentively, and he

1 Madame Bovary