Page 83 - madame-bovary

of charms on the watch-chains; she bought some charms.
She wanted for her mantelpiece two large blue glass vases,
and some time after an ivory necessaire with a silver-gilt
thimble. The less Charles understood these refinements the
more they seduced him. They added something to the plea-
sure of the senses and to the comfort of his fireside. It was
like a golden dust sanding all along the narrow path of his
life.
He was well, looked well; his reputation was firmly es-
tablished.
The country-folk loved him because he was not proud.
He petted the children, never went to the public house, and,
moreover, his morals inspired confidence. He was specially
successful with catarrhs and chest complaints. Being much
afraid of killing his patients, Charles, in fact only pre-
scribed sedatives, from time to time and emetic, a footbath,
or leeches. It was not that he was afraid of surgery; he bled
people copiously like horses, and for the taking out of teeth
he had the ‘devil’s own wrist.’
Finally, to keep up with the times, he took in ‘La Ruche
Medicale,’ a new journal whose prospectus had been sent
him. He read it a little after dinner, but in about five min-
utes the warmth of the room added to the effect of his
dinner sent him to sleep; and he sat there, his chin on his
two hands and his hair spreading like a mane to the foot
of the lamp. Emma looked at him and shrugged her shoul-
ders. Why, at least, was not her husband one of those men
of taciturn passions who work at their books all night, and
at last, when about sixty, the age of rheumatism sets in, wear

Madame Bovary