Bei allen ihren »Extravaganzen« (die Spießbürger von Yonville nannten das so!) sah Emma keineswegs unternehmungslustig aus. Im Gegenteil.
In spite of her vapourish airs (as the housewives of Yonville called them), Emma, all the same, never seemed gay, and usually she had at the corners of her mouth that immobile contraction that puckers the faces of old maids, and those of men whose ambition has failed.