In this he announced that he was
leaving Paris and would not be able to come to the house again. The cook
had been his mistress, and at the moment of breaking off relations she was
the only one of the household whom he had thought it necessary to inform.
But when his mistress for the time being was a woman in society, or at
least one whose birth was not so lowly, nor her position so irregular that
he was unable to arrange for her reception in 'society,' then for her sake
he would return to it, but only to the particular orbit in which she moved
or into which he had drawn her. "No good depending on Swann for this
evening," people would say; "don't you remember, it's his American's night
at the Opera?" He would secure invitations for her to the most exclusive
drawing-rooms, to those houses where he himself went regularly, for weekly
dinners or for poker; every evening, after a slight 'wave' imparted to his
stiffly brushed red locks had tempered with a certain softness the ardour
of his bold green eyes, he would select a flower for his buttonhole and
set out to meet his mistress at the house of one or other of the women of
his circle; and then, thinking of the affection and admiration which the
fashionable folk, whom he always treated exactly as he pleased, would,
when he met them there, lavish upon him in the presence of the woman whom
he loved, he would find a fresh charm in that worldly existence of which
he had grown weary, but whose substance, pervaded and warmly coloured by
the flickering light which he had slipped into its midst, seemed to him
beautiful and rare, now that he had incorporated in it a fresh love.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376