f, and Madame
Bovary senior, when she came to spend part of Lent at Tostes, was much
surprised at the change. She who was formerly so careful, so dainty, now
passed whole days without dressing, wore gray cotton stockings, and
burnt tallow candles. She kept saying they must be economical since they
were not rich, adding that she was very contented, very happy, that
Tostes pleased her very much, with other speeches that closed the mouth
of her mother-in-law. Besides, Emma no longer seemed inclined to follow
her advice; once even, Madame Bovary having thought fit to maintain that
mistresses ought to keep an eye on the religion of their servants, she
had answered with so angry a look and so cold a smile that the good
woman did not mention it again.

Emma was growing _difficile_, capricious. She ordered dishes for
herself, then she did not touch them; one day drank only pure milk, and
the next cups of tea by the dozen. Often she persisted in not going out,
then, stifling, threw open the windows and put on light frocks. After
she had well scolded her servant, she gave her presents or sent her out
to see the neighbors, just as she sometimes threw beggars all the silver
in her purse, although she was by no means tender-hearted or easily
accessible to the feelings of others, like most country-bred people, who
always retain in their souls something of the horny hardness of the
paternal hands.

Toward the end of February old Rouault, in memory of his cure, himself
brought his son-in-law a superb turkey, and stayed three days at Tostes.
Charles being with his patients, Emma kept him company. He smoked in
the room, spat on the fire-dogs, talked farming, calves, cows, poultry,
and municipal council, so that when he left she closed the door on him
with a feeling of satisfaction that surprised even herself. Moreover,
she no longer concealed her contempt for anything or anybody, and at
times she set herself to express singular opinions, finding fault with
that which others approved, and approving things perverse and immoral,
all which made her husband open his eyes widely.

Would this misery last forever? Would she never issue from it? Yet she
was as good as all the women who were living happily. She had seen
duchesses at Vaubyessard with clumsier waists and commoner ways, and she
execrated the injustice of God. She leant her head against the walls to
weep; she envied lives of stir; longed for masked balls, for violent
pleasures, wit