Page 336 - madame-bovary

CHAPTER THREE

hey were three full, exquisite days—a true honeymoon.
TThey were at the Hotel-de-Boulogne, on the harbour;
and they lived there, with drawn blinds and closed doors,
with flowers on the floor, and iced syrups were brought
them early in the morning.
Towards evening they took a covered boat and went to
dine on one of the islands. It was the time when one hears
by the side of the dockyard the caulking-mallets sound-
ing against the hull of vessels. The smoke of the tar rose up
between the trees; there were large fatty drops on the wa-
ter, undulating in the purple colour of the sun, like floating
plaques of Florentine bronze.
They rowed down in the midst of moored boats, whose
long oblique cables grazed lightly against the bottom of the
boat. The din of the town gradually grew distant; the rolling
of carriages, the tumult of voices, the yelping of dogs on the
decks of vessels. She took off her bonnet, and they landed
on their island.
They sat down in the low-ceilinged room of a tavern, at
whose door hung black nets. They ate fried smelts, cream
and cherries. They lay down upon the grass; they kissed be-
hind the poplars; and they would fain, like two Robinsons,
have lived for ever in this little place, which seemed to them
in their beatitude the most magnificent on earth. It was not