Page 376 - madame-bovary

hats, the old odds and ends, and she bargained rapacious-
ly, her peasant blood standing her in good stead. Then on
her journey to town she picked up nick-nacks secondhand,
that, in default of anyone else, Monsieur Lheureux would
certainly take off her hands. She bought ostrich feathers,
Chinese porcelain, and trunks; she borrowed from Felicite,
from Madame Lefrancois, from the landlady at the Croix-
Rouge, from everybody, no matter where.
With the money she at last received from Barneville she
paid two bills; the other fifteen hundred francs fell due. She
renewed the bills, and thus it was continually.
Sometimes, it is true, she tried to make a calculation,
but she discovered things so exorbitant that she could not
believe them possible. Then she recommenced, soon got
confused, gave it all up, and thought no more about it.
The house was very dreary now. Tradesmen were seen
leaving it with angry faces. Handkerchiefs were lying
about on the stoves, and little Berthe, to the great scandal
of Madame Homais, wore stockings with holes in them. If
Charles timidly ventured a remark, she answered roughly
that it wasn’t her fault.
What was the meaning of all these fits of temper? She
explained everything through her old nervous illness, and
reproaching himself with having taken her infirmities for
faults, accused himself of egotism, and longed to go and
take her in his arms.
‘Ah, no!’ he said to himself; ‘I should worry her.’
And he did not stir.
After dinner he walked about alone in the garden; he