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She thought sometimes that, after all, this was the happiest time of her life, the honeymoon, as people called it, and so she should be filled with eager happiness.Perhaps she would have liked to confide all these things to someone. But how tell an indefinable uneasiness, variable as the clouds, unstable as the winds? Words failed her—the opportunity and the courage. And as the intimacy of their life became deeper,the greater became the gulf that separated her from him.
Charles' conversation was as commonplace as a street pavement , without exciting emotion, laughter, or thought. He had never had the curiosity, he said, while he lived in Rouen, to go to the theatre. He could neither swim, nor fence, nor shoot.
A man, on the contrary, should know everything and initiate you into the energies of their passion. But this one taught nothing, knew nothing, wished nothing. He thought her happy;and she resented this easy calm, this serene contentment, the very happiness she gave him.
Emma knew how to look after her house. She sent the patients'accounts in polite letters that had no suggestion of a bill. When they had a neighbour to dinner on Sundays, she managed to have some wonderful dish. Charles finished by rising in his own esteem for possessing such a wife. He showed with pride in the sitting room two small pencil sketches of hers that he had framed in very large frames.
He came home late, usually at ten o'clock, at midnight sometimes. Then he asked for something to eat, and as the servant had gone to bed, Emma waited on him before he went to bed, lying on his back, snoring.
Madame Bovary senior seemed prejudiced against her daughter-in-law. She thought “her ways too fine for their position”; the wood, the sugar, and the candles disappeared as“at a grand establishment .” In Madame Dubuc's time, the old woman felt that she was still the favorite; but now Charles' love for his wife seemed to be a desertion from his mother's tenderness.She now watched her son's happiness in sad silence, as a ruined man looks through a window at people dining in his old house.
Charles knew not what to say, he respected his mother,and he loved his wife infinitely ; he considered the judgment of the one flawless , and yet he thought the conduct of the other irreproachable.
A gamekeeper, cured by the doctor, had given Emma a little Italian greyhound ; she took it out walking, for she went out sometimes in order to be alone.
One afternoon, sitting on the grass, Emma repeated to herself, “Good heavens! Why did I marry?” She asked herself if by some other chance combination it would have not been possible to meet another man; and she tried to imagine what would have been, this different life, this unknown husband.He, surely, could not be like this one. He might have been handsome, witty, distinguished , attractive, such as, no doubt, her old companions of the convent had married.
But towards the end of September something extraordinary fell upon her life; she was invited by the Marquis d'Andervilliers to Vaubyessard to a ball. Charles had cured him of a disease,and the distinguished gentleman was grateful, and so, invited the young couple to the grand event.
indefinable /ˌɪndɪˈfaɪnəbəl/ adj. 不确定的，不能下定义的
variable /ˈveərɪəbəl/ adj. 可变的，不定的
unstable /ˌʌnˈsteɪbəl/ adj. 不稳定的
opportunity /ˌɒpəˈtju:nɪtɪ/ n. 机会
intimacy /ˈɪntɪməsɪ/ n. 亲密
gulf /ɡʌlf/ n. 隔阂
commonplace /ˈkɒmənpleɪs/ n. 平凡的
pavement /ˈpeɪvmənt/ n. 人行道
initiate /ɪˈnɪʃɪeɪt/ vt. 发起，使初步了解，传授
resent /rɪˈzent/ vt. 愤恨，怨恨
sketch /sketʃ/ n. 素描
frame /freɪm/ vt. 给……做框
prejudiced /ˈpredʒʊdɪst/ adj. 有偏见的，带成见的
establishment /ɪˈstæblɪʃmənt/ n. 家庭
infinitely /ˈɪnfɪnɪtlɪ/ adv. 无限地，无穷地
judgment /ˈdʒʌdʒmənt/ n. 判断
flawless /ˈfl ɔ:lɪs/ adj. 无瑕疵的，无缺点的
irreproachable /ˌɪrɪˈprəʊtʃəbəl/ adj. 无可指责的，无缺点的
greyhound /ˈɡreɪhaʊnd/ n. 灰狗
combination /ˌkɒmbɪˈneɪʃən/ n. 结合，联合，合并
distinguished /dɪˈstɪŋɡwɪʃt/ adj. 卓越的，著名的