He was about to see in reality a certain coffer of which he had twenty times beheld the image in his dreams--a coffer long and deep, locked, bolted, fastened in the wall; a coffer of which he had so often heard, and which the hands--a little wrinkled, it is true, but still not without elegance--of the procurator’s wife were about to open to his admiring looks.
Il allait voir en réalité certain bahut dont vingt fois il avait vu l'image dans ses rêves; bahut de forme longue et profonde, cadenassé, verrouillé, scellé au sol; bahut dont il avait si souvent entendu parler, et que les mains un peu sèches, il est vrai, mais non pas sans élégance de la procureuse, allaient ouvrir à ses regards admirateurs.