CHAPTER FIVE

On Thursday morning, she awoke early, dressed quietly so she wouldn't wake Charles, and left for Rouen. She arrived just as the town was awaking. She turned a corner, and recognized her lover's curled hair.

Leon continued walking to the hotel. He walked up the stairs. He opened the door. He went in ... She followed. All their worries were then forgotten; they were together.

They imagined they were in their own home, there to stay for the rest of their lives, forever a young married couple.

He was completely in love with her. She was a lady of style, and a married woman; a real mistress! She was the 'woman in love' of all the novels, with her variety of moods, happy and laughing one moment, angry or indifferent the next.

Suddenly, she took his head in her hands, kissed him quickly on the forehead, cried out 'Goodbye!' and rushed from the room.

As she returned home, she sat crying, calling out 'Leon.' Sometimes on her return, she would see an old man with a walking stick along the road. His face was hidden as he walked. When he lifted his head, his face showed a pair of holes where his eyes should be, dried blood on his cheeks.

As he followed the carriage, he sang a little song:

When the sun shines warm above,

It turns a young woman's thoughts to love.

Often, he threw his hat into the carriage, and Emma would scream in fright. She would sit, thinking of her lover, until the journey was over.

Charles was always waiting for her at home. At last, Madame would arrive. She would rarely kiss her daughter. She would often go immediately to her room.

Justin was sometimes there to take care of her needs, often more attentive than a first-class maid.

"All right, that'll do," she would say.

She would be upset and anxious the rest of the week, awaiting Thursday, to see her lover again.

"You'll leave me," she used to tell him, in a tender voice. "Ah, yes, you'll marry; you'll be like the rest."

"The rest?" he asked.

"Men!" she answered, and pushed him away. "You're all evil!"

One day, they were talking, and she told him that she had loved someone before him. "Not like I love you, though," and she swore on her daughter's life that "nothing had happened."

The young man believed her.

When they talked about Paris, she often whispered, "How happy we could be there!"

"Aren't we happy?" the young man asked gently.

"Yes of course," she said, "I'm being silly. Kiss me!"

To her husband, she was more charming than ever, playing him songs on the piano after dinner. He thought he was the luckiest husband ever. One evening, however, frightened Emma.

"Isn't Mademoiselle Lempereur your piano teacher?"

"Yes."

"Well, I've just met her," Charles said, "at Madame Liegeard's. I mentioned you to her. She's never heard of you."

Emma almost fainted.

"Maybe there are several Mademoiselle Lempereurs who teach piano in Rouen," said the doctor.

"It's possible," she said, "but I've got her receipts."

The following Friday, as Charles was putting on his boots, he found a sheet of paper inside. He picked it up and read:

Received, for three months' lessons, sixty-five francs.—Felicie Lempereur, Teacher of Music.

"Why is this in my boot? How strange!" he thought to himself.

"Oh, it must have fallen out of the bill box on the shelf," she answered.

One day, Monsieur Lheureux saw her coming out of the Hotel de Boulogne on Leon's arm. She was worried that he would tell others.

Three days later, he walked into her room and closed the door behind him.

"I need some money," he said.

She declared that she had none to give him. Lheureux got angry, and reminded, her of his patience with her slow payment of bills. He then showed her a list of goods she had not paid for: curtains, carpet, furniture, and several dresses, the total value of which amounted to eighty pounds.

"And if you haven't got any cash," he told her, "you've got some land to sell."

He named a cottage in a town nearby, which old Monsieur Bovary bought quite some time ago. Lheureux knew all about it, even the names of the neighbors. He told her that he knew of someone interested in buying the property, and reminded her that she had the Power of Attorney, and therefore the right to sell the land.

Lheureux came to see her the following week. He told her that the buyer would pay one hundred and sixty pounds. Eighty pounds was immediately given to her. She asked to pay her eighty-pound bill immediately. He persuaded her not to. She looked at the money, and thought she could use the money for her meetings with her lover.

Then, he laughed, and showed her two new bills, each for forty pounds. She was shocked.

"But if you pay off your bills with me now, you won't have to worry anymore." And he picked up a pen to write across the account: "Received from Madame Bovary, one hundred and sixty pounds."

Emma was confused. Then, Lheureux told her he would subtract this one hundred and sixty pounds from the total amount she owed him.

One day, Charles found a new bill in the mailbox. He waited patiently for his wife to return. She explained, as she kissed him while sitting on his knees, that there were many expenses for the house. Charles, however, was becoming quite worried about their income, and wrote to his mother. She came immediately. She asked to see Lheureux's bills, and declared that Emma was spending far too much of their income on unnecessary things, such as carpets and curtains.

Emma, relaxing in an armchair, calmly replied, "Oh, stop, stop, Madame!"

The elder Madame Bovary continued to scold her, telling her they would all soon be in the poorhouse. Charles promised to soon cancel the Power of Attorney ... 

"What!" exclaimed Emma.

"He has promised me he will!" his mother told her.

"Oh! Why do you always have to come and make trouble?" he asked his mother.

Charles, for the first time in his life, defended his wife to his mother, and told her she should leave. And the next day she went. As she left, she exclaimed, "No, no, you love her more than me, but don't worry, I won't be coming back to 'make trouble', as you say!"

The next Thursday, she told Leon of her terrible week with the elder Madame Bovary. She laughed, cried, sang, danced, and acted quite strangely, but he loved her even more.

One Thursday night, she did not return to Yonville. Charles was upset. Little Berthe wouldn't go to bed without her mother, and was crying loudly. Finally, at eleven o'clock, Charles left to look for her. At two in the morning, he reached Rouen. He wondered if Leon might have seen her. Where did he live? Luckily, Charles remembered the address. No one came to the door.

"Of course!" he thought to himself. "She'll have stayed with Mademoiselle Lempereur, her piano teacher."

He looked up her address in the directory. As he turned into the street, Emma appeared at the other end of it. He threw his arms around her.

"Why didn't you come back?" he cried.

"I wasn't well. I was at Mademoiselle Lempereur's."

"I was going there now!"

"Oh, she just went out. I feel tired, let's go home, she told him calmly.

(end of section)