Page 424 - madame-bovary

lighted in sensual touches; and finally upon the soles of the
feet, so swift of yore, when she was running to satisfy her
desires, and that would now walk no more.
The cure wiped his fingers, threw the bit of cotton dipped
in oil into the fire, and came and sat down by the dying
woman, to tell her that she must now blend her sufferings
with those of Jesus Christ and abandon herself to the divine
mercy.
Finishing his exhortations, he tried to place in her hand
a blessed candle, symbol of the celestial glory with which
she was soon to be surrounded. Emma, too weak, could
not close her fingers, and the taper, but for Monsieur Bour-
nisien would have fallen to the ground.
However, she was not quite so pale, and her face had an
expression of serenity as if the sacrament had cured her.
The priest did not fail to point this out; he even explained
to Bovary that the Lord sometimes prolonged the life of
persons when he thought it meet for their salvation; and
Charles remembered the day when, so near death, she had
received the communion. Perhaps there was no need to de-
spair, he thought.
In fact, she looked around her slowly, as one awaken-
ing from a dream; then in a distinct voice she asked for her
looking-glass, and remained some time bending over it, un-
til the big tears fell from her eyes. Then she turned away her
head with a sigh and fell back upon the pillows.
Her chest soon began panting rapidly; the whole of her
tongue protruded from her mouth; her eyes, as they rolled,
grew paler, like the two globes of a lamp that is going out,