I
used often to recall to myself when, many years later, I began to take an
interest in his character because of the similarities which, in wholly
different respects, it offered to my own, how, when he used to write to my
grandfather (though not at the time we are now considering, for it was
about the date of my own birth that Swann's great 'affair' began, and made
a long interruption in his amatory practices) the latter, recognising his
friend's handwriting on the envelope, would exclaim: "Here is Swann asking
for something; on guard!" And, either from distrust or from the
unconscious spirit of devilry which urges us to offer a thing only to
those who do not want it, my grandparents would meet with an obstinate
refusal the most easily satisfied of his prayers, as when he begged them
for an introduction to a girl who dined with us every Sunday, and whom
they were obliged, whenever Swann mentioned her, to pretend that they no
longer saw, although they would be wondering, all through the week, whom
they could invite to meet her, and often failed, in the end, to find
anyone, sooner than make a sign to him who would so gladly have accepted.
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