Suddenly, during the nuptial mass, the beadle, by moving to one side,
enabled me to see, sitting in a chapel, a lady with fair hair and a large
nose, piercing blue eyes, a billowy scarf of mauve silk, glossy and new
and brilliant, and a little spot at the corner of her nose. And because on
the surface of her face, which was red, as though she had been very warm,
I could make out, diluted and barely perceptible, details which resembled
the portrait that had been shewn to me; because, more especially, the
particular features which I remarked in this lady, if I attempted to
catalogue them, formulated themselves in precisely the same terms:--_a
large nose, blue eyes_, as Dr. Percepied had used when describing in my
presence the Duchesse de Guermantes, I said to myself: "This lady is like
the Duchesse de Guermantes." Now the chapel from which she was following
the service was that of Gilbert the Bad; beneath its flat tombstones,
yellowed and bulging like cells of honey in a comb, rested the bones of
the old Counts of Brabant; and I remembered having heard it said that this
chapel was reserved for the Guermantes family, whenever any of its members
came to attend a ceremony at Combray; there was, indeed, but one woman
resembling the portrait of Mme.
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