The conversation languished; Madame Bovary gave it up every few minutes, whilst he himself seemed quite embarrassed. Seated on a low chair near the fire, he turned round in his fingers the ivory thimble-case. She stitched on, or from time to time turned down the hem of the cloth with her nail. She did not speak; he was silent, captivated by her silence, as he would have been by her speech.
“Poor fellow!” she thought.
“How have I displeased her?” he asked himself.
At last, however, Léon said that he should have, one of these days, to go to Rouen on some office business.
“Your music subscription is out; am I to renew it?”
“No,” she replied.
“Why?”
“Because—”
And pursing her lips she slowly drew a long stitch of grey thread.
This work irritated Léon. It seemed to roughen the ends of her fingers. A gallant phrase came into his head, but he did not risk it.
“Then you are giving it up?” he went on.
“What?” she asked hurriedly. “Music? Ah! yes! Have I not my house to look after, my husband to attend to, a thousand things, in fact, many duties that must be considered first?”
She looked at the clock. Charles was late. Then, she affected anxiety. Two or three times she even repeated, “He is so good!”