Chapter summary
In Rouen, Emma Bovary and Léon spend three days at the Hotel de Boulogne, with the shutters closed, and in the afternoon they go by boat to dine on an island. On the way back, by moonlight, Léon finds a silk ribbon at the bottom of the boat, and the boatman says he saw it with a group of revelers, among them a tall man with a mustache whom they called Adolphe or Dodolphe; Emma shivers. At the parting, she asks Léon to write to the house of his nurse, Aunt Rolet, under a double envelope, and asks whether the power of attorney is really in order, and Léon, alone in the streets, wonders at such eagerness.
Analysis
Emma went to Rouen with a pretext, the power of attorney, and at the parting she asks whether everything is in order with the paper; Léon, alone, wonders at such eagerness. The text links the two threads: the pretext, which opens the door for her, and Léon's question, which the chapter leaves unanswered. The three days are narrated like a honeymoon, only between Emma and Léon.
The three days are narrated as a complete honeymoon, only between Emma and Léon, not between Emma and her husband. The chapter is short and works as a breath before the routine that sets in in the next chapter: here there are still boat, island, moonlit song, the highest point of the curve, the moment when the fantasy has not yet collided with logistics. Only an old boatman, without knowing what he is saying, lets a trace of Emma's past slip through:
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