Page 407 - madame-bovary

‘Well, I am ruined, Rodolphe! You must lend me three
thousand francs.’
‘But—but—‘ said he, getting up slowly, while his face as-
sumed a grave expression.
‘You know,’ she went on quickly, ‘that my husband had
placed his whole fortune at a notary’s. He ran away. So we
borrowed; the patients don’t pay us. Moreover, the settling
of the estate is not yet done; we shall have the money later
on. But to-day, for want of three thousand francs, we are to
be sold up. It is to be at once, this very moment, and, count-
ing upon your friendship, I have come to you.’
‘Ah!’ thought Rodolphe, turning very pale, ‘that was what
she came for.’ At last he said with a calm air—
‘Dear madame, I have not got them.’
He did not lie. If he had had them, he would, no doubt,
have given them, although it is generally disagreeable to do
such fine things: a demand for money being, of all the winds
that blow upon love, the coldest and most destructive.
First she looked at him for some moments.
‘You have not got them!’ she repeated several times. ‘You
have not got them! I ought to have spared myself this last
shame. You never loved me. You are no better than the oth-
ers.’
She was betraying, ruining herself.
Rodolphe interrupted her, declaring he was ‘hard up’
himself.
‘Ah! I pity you,’ said Emma. ‘Yes—very much.’
And fixing her eyes upon an embossed carabine, that
shone against its panoply, ‘But when one is so poor one

0 Madame Bovary