Page 361 - madame-bovary

And Charles felt relieved by this comfortable reflection,
which gave his weakness the flattering appearance of higher
pre-occupation.
And what an outburst the next Thursday at the hotel in
their room with Leon! She laughed, cried, sang, sent for
sherbets, wanted to smoke cigarettes, seemed to him wild
and extravagant, but adorable, superb.
He did not know what recreation of her whole being
drove her more and more to plunge into the pleasures of
life. She was becoming irritable, greedy, voluptuous; and
she walked about the streets with him carrying her head
high, without fear, so she said, of compromising herself. At
times, however, Emma shuddered at the sudden thought of
meeting Rodolphe, for it seemed to her that, although they
were separated forever, she was not completely free from her
subjugation to him.
One night she did not return to Yonville at all. Charles
lost his head with anxiety, and little Berthe would not go to
bed without her mamma, and sobbed enough to break her
heart. Justin had gone out searching the road at random.
Monsieur Homais even had left his pharmacy.
At last, at eleven o’clock, able to bear it no longer, Charles
harnessed his chaise, jumped in, whipped up his horse, and
reached the ‘Croix-Rouge’ about two o’clock in the morn-
ing. No one there! He thought that the clerk had perhaps
seen her; but where did he live? Happily, Charles remem-
bered his employer’s address, and rushed off there.
Day was breaking, and he could distinguish the es-
cutcheons over the door, and knocked. Someone, without

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