Page 81 - madame-bovary

egance of manners with delicacy of sentiment. Did not love,
like Indian plants, need a special soil, a particular tempera-
ture? Signs by moonlight, long embraces, tears flowing over
yielded hands, all the fevers of the flesh and the languors
of tenderness could not be separated from the balconies of
great castles full of indolence, from boudoirs with silken
curtains and thick carpets, well-filled flower-stands, a bed
on a raised dias, nor from the flashing of precious stones
and the shoulder-knots of liveries.
The lad from the posting house who came to groom the
mare every morning passed through the passage with his
heavy wooden shoes; there were holes in his blouse; his feet
were bare in list slippers. And this was the groom in knee-
britches with whom she had to be content! His work done,
he did not come back again all day, for Charles on his re-
turn put up his horse himself, unsaddled him and put on
the halter, while the servant-girl brought a bundle of straw
and threw it as best she could into the manger.
To replace Nastasie (who left Tostes shedding torrents of
tears) Emma took into her service a young girl of fourteen,
an orphan with a sweet face. She forbade her wearing cot-
ton caps, taught her to address her in the third person, to
bring a glass of water on a plate, to knock before coming
into a room, to iron, starch, and to dress her—wanted to
make a lady’s-maid of her. The new servant obeyed without
a murmur, so as not to be sent away; and as madame usually
left the key in the sideboard, Felicite every evening took a
small supply of sugar that she ate alone in her bed after she
had said her prayers.

0 Madame Bovary