Page 343 - madame-bovary

CHAPTER FIVE

he went on Thursdays. She got up and dressed silently,
Sin order not to awaken Charles, who would have made
remarks about her getting ready too early. Next she walked
up and down, went to the windows, and looked out at the
Place. The early dawn was broadening between the pillars
of the market, and the chemist’s shop, with the shutters still
up, showed in the pale light of the dawn the large letters of
his signboard.
When the clock pointed to a quarter past seven, she went
off to the ‘Lion d’Or,’ whose door Artemise opened yawn-
ing. The girl then made up the coals covered by the cinders,
and Emma remained alone in the kitchen. Now and again
she went out. Hivert was leisurely harnessing his horses,
listening, moreover, to Mere Lefrancois, who, passing her
head and nightcap through a grating, was charging him
with commissions and giving him explanations that would
have confused anyone else. Emma kept beating the soles of
her boots against the pavement of the yard.
At last, when he had eaten his soup, put on his cloak,
lighted his pipe, and grasped his whip, he calmly installed
himself on his seat.
The ‘Hirondelle’ started at a slow trot, and for about a
mile stopped here and there to pick up passengers who
waited for it, standing at the border of the road, in front of

Madame Bovary