Page 455 - madame-bovary

and led her to the cemetery. They came back at nightfall,
when the only light left in the Place was that in Binet’s win-
dow.
The voluptuousness of his grief was, however, incomplete,
for he had no one near him to share it, and he paid visits to
Madame Lefrancois to be able to speak of her.
But the landlady only listened with half an ear, having
troubles like himself. For Lheureux had at last established
the ‘Favorites du Commerce,’ and Hivert, who enjoyed a
great reputation for doing errands, insisted on a rise of wag-
es, and was threatening to go over ‘to the opposition shop.’
One day when he had gone to the market at Argueil to
sell his horse—his last resource—he met Rodolphe.
They both turned pale when they caught sight of one
another. Rodolphe, who had only sent his card, first stam-
mered some apologies, then grew bolder, and even pushed
his assurance (it was in the month of August and very hot)
to the length of inviting him to have a bottle of beer at the
public-house.
Leaning on the table opposite him, he chewed his cigar
as he talked, and Charles was lost in reverie at this face that
she had loved. He seemed to see again something of her in
it. It was a marvel to him. He would have liked to have been
this man.
The other went on talking agriculture, cattle, pasturage,
filling out with banal phrases all the gaps where an allusion
might slip in. Charles was not listening to him; Rodolphe
noticed it, and he followed the succession of memories that
crossed his face. This gradually grew redder; the nostrils

Madame Bovary