“No farinaceous or milk food, wear wool next the skin, and expose the diseased parts to the smoke of juniper berries.”
The sight of the well-known objects that defiled before her eyes gradually diverted Emma from her present trouble. An intolerable fatigue overwhelmed her, and she reached her home stupefied, discouraged, almost asleep.
“Come what may come!” she said to herself. “And then, who knows? Why, at any moment could not some extraordinary event occur? Lheureux even might die!”
At nine o’clock in the morning she was awakened by the sound of voices in the Place. There was a crowd round the market reading a large bill fixed to one of the posts, and she saw Justin, who was climbing on to a stone and tearing down the bill. But at this moment the rural guard seized him by the collar. Monsieur Homais came out of his shop, and Mere Lefrançois, in the midst of the crowd, seemed to be perorating.
“Madame! madame!” cried Félicité, running in, “it’s abominable!”
And the poor girl, deeply moved, handed her a yellow paper that she had just torn off the door. Emma read with a glance that all her furniture was for sale.
Then they looked at one another silently. The servant and mistress had no secret one from the other. At last Félicité sighed—
“If I were you, madame, I should go to Monsieur Guillaumin.”
“Do you think—”
And this question meant to say—