In a frantic effort to regain the security of happiness, Emma sought to dominate all aspects of Leons life.

Each week they had a passionate reunion, as if they had been separated for an age instead of for a few days.

These visits were joyous events for both of them and were marked by profound emotional and romantic feelings.

As their affair progressed, they viewed each other as if they were the idealized figures of sentimental fiction and attempted to enact all that once they had only imagined.

She lived only for her next meeting with Leon and spent the week reading romantic books and reliving her memories, in order to keep her ardor at a high pitch.

However, she was able to show Charles falsified receipts for the lessons and soon convinced him that nothing was wrong.

Meanwhile, Emma was regularly being presented with other unpaid and overdue bills.

She was confused by all this and unable to settle matters, so she attempted to ignore her creditors.

She borrowed more and more from Lheureux, for as she became more worried and frightened, she also became more extravagant.

Nothing meant anything to her any more except her Thursday in Rouen.

She indulged in complicated sentimental excesses and wild flights of fantasy.

In the desperate hope of finding happiness, she became voluptuous and greedy and tried to experience every kind of sensual pleasure.

Her behavior perplexed Leon, particularly when she tried to force him to dress or act in certain ways or to quit his job in order to ensure his permanent devotion to her.

Once she stayed overnight in Rouen with Leon and did not bother to inform Charles of her whereabouts.

Later on, she managed to convince the poor man that he was at fault for worrying and inquiring about her, and that there was nothing wrong with her strange behavior.

In return for this hospitality he felt obligated to invite Homais to Rouen.

Homais eventually accepted the invitation and decided by coincidence, to come on the same day that Emma usually went to the city.

Leon was not too assertive, and Homais easily quieted all his objections.

Leon managed to slip away from Homais for a little while to see her, but there was a nasty scene.

She refused to listen to his excuses and accused him of such ridiculous things as preferring Homais to her.

She began to see that he was not the ideal figure she had imagined, and this thought troubled her.

Their relationship was already shaky, and now it began to depend almost entirely on sensuality and various outside diversions that had once been secondary to their emotional feelings.

Shmoop Madame Bovary