Page 420 - madame-bovary

ing some breakfast.
He sent quickly to the ‘Lion d’Or’ for some pigeons; to the
butcher’s for all the cutlets that were to be had; to Tuvache
for cream; and to Lestiboudois for eggs; and the druggist
himself aided in the preparations, while Madame Homais
was saying as she pulled together the strings of her jacket—
‘You must excuse us, sir, for in this poor place, when one
hasn’t been told the night before—‘
‘Wine glasses!’ whispered Homais.
‘If only we were in town, we could fall back upon stuffed
trotters.’
‘Be quiet! Sit down, doctor!’
He thought fit, after the first few mouthfuls, to give some
details as to the catastrophe.
‘We first had a feeling of siccity in the pharynx, then in-
tolerable pains at the epigastrium, super purgation, coma.’
‘But how did she poison herself?’
‘I don’t know, doctor, and I don’t even know where she
can have procured the arsenious acid.’
Justin, who was just bringing in a pile of plates, began
to tremble.
‘What’s the matter?’ said the chemist.
At this question the young man dropped the whole lot on
the ground with a crash.
‘Imbecile!’ cried Homais. ‘awkward lout! block-head!
confounded ass!’
But suddenly controlling himself—
‘I wished, doctor, to make an analysis, and primo I deli-
cately introduced a tube—‘

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