Page 339 - madame-bovary

CHAPTER FOUR

eon soon put on an air of superiority before his com-
Lrades, avoided their company, and completely neglected
his work.
He waited for her letters; he re-read them; he wrote to
her. He called her to mind with all the strength of his de-
sires and of his memories. Instead of lessening with absence,
this longing to see her again grew, so that at last on Saturday
morning he escaped from his office.
When, from the summit of the hill, he saw in the val-
ley below the church-spire with its tin flag swinging in the
wind, he felt that delight mingled with triumphant vanity
and egoistic tenderness that millionaires must experience
when they come back to their native village.
He went rambling round her house. A light was burning
in the kitchen. He watched for her shadow behind the cur-
tains, but nothing appeared.
Mere Lefrancois, when she saw him, uttered many ex-
clamations. She thought he ‘had grown and was thinner,’
while Artemise, on the contrary, thought him stouter and
darker.
He dined in the little room as of yore, but alone, without
the tax-gatherer; for Binet, tired of waiting for the ‘Hiron-
delle,’ had definitely put forward his meal one hour, and
now he dined punctually at five, and yet he declared usually

Madame Bovary