Page 396 - madame-bovary

worries, her wants. He could understand that; an elegant
woman! and, without leaving off eating, he had turned com-
pletely round towards her, so that his knee brushed against
her boot, whose sole curled round as it smoked against the
stove.
But when she asked for a thousand sous, he closed his lips,
and declared he was very sorry he had not had the manage-
ment of her fortune before, for there were hundreds of ways
very convenient, even for a lady, of turning her money to
account. They might, either in the turf-peats of Grumesn-
il or building-ground at Havre, almost without risk, have
ventured on some excellent speculations; and he let her con-
sume herself with rage at the thought of the fabulous sums
that she would certainly have made.
‘How was it,’ he went on, ‘that you didn’t come to me?’
‘I hardly know,’ she said.
‘Why, hey? Did I frighten you so much? It is I, on the
contrary, who ought to complain. We hardly know one an-
other; yet I am very devoted to you. You do not doubt that,
I hope?’
He held out his hand, took hers, covered it with a greedy
kiss, then held it on his knee; and he played delicately with
her fingers whilst he murmured a thousand blandishments.
His insipid voice murmured like a running brook; a light
shone in his eyes through the glimmering of his spectacles,
and his hand was advancing up Emma’s sleeve to press her
arm. She felt against her cheek his panting breath. This man
oppressed her horribly.
She sprang up and said to him—