t surrounded with crape, he put down a
green bandbox on the table, and began by complaining to madame, with
many civilities, that he should have remained till that day without
gaining her confidence. A poor shop like his was not made to attract a
"fashionable lady;" he emphasized the words; yet she had only to
command, and he would undertake to provide her with anything she might
wish, either in haberdashery or linen, millinery or fancy goods, for he
went to town regularly four times a month. He was connected with the
best houses. You could speak of him at the "Trois Freres," at the "Barbe
d'Or," or at the "Grand Sauvage;" all these gentlemen knew him as well
as the insides of their pockets. To-day, then, he had come to show
madame, in passing, various articles he happened to have, thanks to the
most rare opportunity. And he pulled out half-a-dozen embroidered
collars from the box.

Madame Bovary examined them. "I do not require anything," she said.

Then Monsieur Lheureux delicately exhibited three Algerian scarves,
several packets of English needles, a pair of straw slippers, and,
finally, four eggcups in cocoa-nut wood, carved in open-work by
convicts. Then, with both hands on the table, his neck stretched out,
his figure bent forward, open-mouthed, he watched Emma's look, who was
walking up and down undecided amid these goods. From time to time, as if
to remove some dust, he filliped with his nail the silk of the scarves
spread out at full length, and they rustled with a little noise, making
in the green twilight the gold spangles of their tissue scintillate like
little stars.

"How much are they?"

"A mere nothing," he replied, "a mere nothing. But there's no hurry;
whenever it's convenient. We are not Jews."

She reflected for a few moments, and ended by again declining Monsieur
Lheureux's offer. He replied quite unconcernedly:

"Very well. We shall understand each other by and by. I have always got
on with ladies--if I didn't with my own!"

Emma smiled.

"I wanted to tell you," he went on good-naturedly, after his joke, "that
it isn't the money I should trouble about. Why, I could give you some,
if need be."

She made a gesture of surprise.

"Ah!" said he quickly and in a low voice, "I shouldn't have to go far to
find you some, rely on that."

And he began asking after Pere Tellier, the proprietor of the "Cafe
Francais," whom Monsieur Bovary was then attending.

"What's the matter with Pere Tellie