CHAPTER ELEVEN

The next day, Berthe asked for her mummy. They told her she had gone away and would be bringing her back some toys. Berthe spoke of her several times more, and then gradually stopped thinking about her.

Money troubles soon began again for Charles. Lheureux was always coming by the house to demand payments. Charles refused to sell her possessions. This annoyed his mother. However, Charles was not concerned with his mother's feelings. He had changed.

Then, Mademoiselle Lempereur arrived one day, after hearing of Madame Bovary's death. She requested payment for three months' lessons, though Emma had never had a single one. She had simply made an agreement with Mademoiselle Lempereur to write out the receipts for her husband. The library demanded three years' payment. As each bill was paid, Charles was certain it was the last; but new bills continued to arrive.

The maid, Felicite, had recently run off to marry Monsieur Guillaumin's son, Theodore, and took Madame Bovary's dresses along. About the same time came news that Monsieur Leon Dupuis was soon to marry Mademoiselle Leocadie of Bondeville.

"How pleased my poor wife would have been!" Charles wrote in a letter to Monsieur Leon.

One day, he was walking about the house, and went up to the attic, where he found Emma's love letters from Rodolphe. He could not bear to read them. How could anyone not fall in love with her, he thought to himself.

No one came to see them now. Justin ran away to Rouen, and the chemist's children no longer played with poor Berthe, as the little girl's social position was now well below theirs.

Bovary was quite careful with his money, and paid off a number of bills, but still had several bills yet to pay. He asked his mother to sell her property, as she was now living in Yonville with him. She agreed, but said Charles must give her one of Emma's shawls in return. He refused to give it to her, and they quarreled. She suggested that she take the child to live with her. Charles agreed, but when the moment came, he could not part with the girl. Mother Bovary left.

One morning, Charles finally decided to open Emma's secret drawer in her writing desk. All Leon's letters were there. He read through each one carefully, crying as he did. As he looked through, he also found a portrait of Rodolphe, staring back at him.

He refused to go out, even to see his patients. He wept aloud all day and night, as he walked through the house. One day, Charles was forced to sell his horse, and went over to the market; and there he met Rodolphe. After the immediate shock of meeting was over, Rodolphe invited Charles to take a bottle of beer with him. As they drank together, Charles envied him; she had loved Rodolphe. Charles was not listening to Rodolphe talk. Rodolphe, in terror, stopped speaking, as Charles looked at him with hateful anger.

"I'm not angry with you," Charles told him after a moment.

Rodolphe sat in silence.

"No, I'm not angry with you anymore. No one is to blame," he whispered to himself.

The next day, Charles went to sit in the garden. At seven o'clock, Berthe, who had not seen him all the afternoon, came to fetch him in to dinner.

"Come on, Daddy!" she said. He fell to the ground. He was dead.

When all the Bovary possessions were sold, and the bills paid, there was only twelve francs left, which paid for Mademoiselle Bovary's journey to her grandmother's. That good lady died within the year, and the little girl was then taken to an aunt—old Rouault could no longer walk on his own. The aunt was poor, and sent her to a factory to work.

Since Bovary's death, three doctors have since come to Yonville, and each has left. Upon each one coming, Homais, of course, shows them nothing but neighborly care and generosity. Homais has found success in his business, and has begun writing books on medicine, as well as working in his laboratory.

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