Page 325 - madame-bovary

to all comers, was the spot where he displayed his pride,
the Capharnaum was the refuge where, egoistically con-
centrating himself, Homais delighted in the exercise of his
predilections, so that Justin’s thoughtlessness seemed to
him a monstrous piece of irreverence, and, redder than the
currants, he repeated—
‘Yes, from the Capharnaum! The key that locks up the
acids and caustic alkalies! To go and get a spare pan! a pan
with a lid! and that I shall perhaps never use! Everything
is of importance in the delicate operations of our art! But,
devil take it! one must make distinctions, and not employ
for almost domestic purposes that which is meant for phar-
maceutical! It is as if one were to carve a fowl with a scalpel;
as if a magistrate—‘
‘Now be calm,’ said Madame Homais.
And Athalie, pulling at his coat, cried ‘Papa! papa!’
‘No, let me alone,’ went on the druggist ‘let me alone,
hang it! My word! One might as well set up for a grocer.
That’s it! go it! respect nothing! break, smash, let loose the
leeches, burn the mallow-paste, pickle the gherkins in the
window jars, tear up the bandages!’
‘I thought you had—‘said Emma.
‘Presently! Do you know to what you exposed yourself?
Didn’t you see anything in the corner, on the left, on the
third shelf? Speak, answer, articulate something.’
‘I—don’t—know,’ stammered the young fellow.
‘Ah! you don’t know! Well, then, I do know! You saw a
bottle of blue glass, sealed with yellow wax, that contains
a white powder, on which I have even written ‘Dangerous!’

Madame Bovary