de
Guermantes,' appeared to me in dreams, since this one had not been, like
the others, formed arbitrarily by myself, but had sprung into sight for
the first time, only a moment ago, here in church; an image which was not
of the same nature, was not colourable at will, like those others that
allowed themselves to imbibe the orange tint of a sonorous syllable, but
which was so real that everything, even to the fiery little spot at the
corner of her nose, gave an assurance of her subjection to the laws of
life, as in a transformation scene on the stage a crease in the dress of a
fairy, a quivering of her tiny finger, indicate the material presence of a
living actress before our eyes, whereas we were uncertain, till then,
whether we were not looking merely at a projection of limelight from a
lantern.
Meanwhile I was endeavouring to apply to this image, which the prominent
nose, the piercing eyes pinned down and fixed in my field of vision
(perhaps because it was they that had first struck it, that had made the
first impression on its surface, before I had had time to wonder whether
the woman who thus appeared before me might possibly be Mme.
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