- Léon is just as into the affair as Emma is. He reads her letters voraciously, and gets sick of his job; instead, he thinks about his mistress.
- One weekend, he misses Emma so much he actually visits Yonville. The townspeople are glad to see him. He stays in the Lion d’Or, Madame Lefrançois’s inn, waiting for an opportune moment to see his love.
- On the second night of his visit, he’s finally able to see her – in the same place she used to meet Rodolphe. They lament the difficulty of life…it’s so hard to be apart!
- Emma gets more and more cunning; she meets with Madame Rollet to get her letters, orders tons of new items from Monsieur Lheureux, and even hatches a sly plan to get Charles to send her to Rouen once a week.
- Under the false pretenses of picking up her music again, she complains about her lack of skill with the piano. She wheedles Charles into agreeing to pay for lessons in Rouen.