Page 74 - madame-bovary

have known their lives, have penetrated, blended with them.
But she was shivering with cold. She undressed, and cow-
ered down between the sheets against Charles, who was
asleep.
There were a great many people to luncheon. The repast
lasted ten minutes; no liqueurs were served, which aston-
ished the doctor.
Next, Mademoiselle d’Andervilliers collected some piec-
es of roll in a small basket to take them to the swans on
the ornamental waters, and they went to walk in the hot-
houses, where strange plants, bristling with hairs, rose in
pyramids under hanging vases, whence, as from over-filled
nests of serpents, fell long green cords interlacing. The or-
angery, which was at the other end, led by a covered way to
the outhouses of the chateau. The Marquis, to amuse the
young woman, took her to see the stables.
Above the basket-shaped racks porcelain slabs bore the
names of the horses in black letters. Each animal in its stall
whisked its tail when anyone went near and said ‘Tchk!
tchk!’ The boards of the harness room shone like the floor-
ing of a drawing room. The carriage harness was piled up in
the middle against two twisted columns, and the bits, the
whips, the spurs, the curbs, were ranged in a line all along
the wall.
Charles, meanwhile, went to ask a groom to put his horse
to. The dog-cart was brought to the foot of the steps, and, all
the parcels being crammed in, the Bovarys paid their re-
spects to the Marquis and Marchioness and set out again
for Tostes.