Page 327 - madame-bovary

ocean, which, in the storm, opens itself from the seaweeds
on its shores down to the sands of its abysses.
And he went on—
‘I am beginning to repent terribly of having taken you
up! I should certainly have done better to have left you to
rot in your poverty and the dirt in which you were born.
Oh, you’ll never be fit for anything but to herd animals with
horns! You have no aptitude for science! You hardly know
how to stick on a label! And there you are, dwelling with me
snug as a parson, living in clover, taking your ease!’
But Emma, turning to Madame Homais, ‘I was told to
come here—‘
‘Oh, dear me!’ interrupted the good woman, with a sad
air, ‘how am I to tell you? It is a misfortune!’
She could not finish, the druggist was thundering—
‘Empty it! Clean it! Take it back! Be quick!’
And seizing Justin by the collar of his blouse, he shook
a book out of his pocket. The lad stooped, but Homais was
the quicker, and, having picked up the volume, contemplat-
ed it with staring eyes and open mouth.
‘CONJUGAL—LOVE!’ he said, slowly separating the
two words. ‘Ah! very good! very good! very pretty! And il-
lustrations! Oh, this is too much!’
Madame Homais came forward.
‘No, do not touch it!’
The children wanted to look at the pictures.
‘Leave the room,’ he said imperiously; and they went out.
First he walked up and down with the open volume in
his hand, rolling his eyes, choking, tumid, apoplectic. Then

Madame Bovary