Grevy's. I suppose that means he's what you'd call a
'gentleman'?" He even went to the length of offering Swann a card of
invitation to the Dental Exhibition.
"This will let you in, and anyone you take with you," he explained, "but
dogs are not admitted. I'm just warning you, you understand, because some
friends of mine went there once, who hadn't been told, and there was the
devil to pay."
As for M. Verdurin, he did not fail to observe the distressing effect upon
his wife of the discovery that Swann had influential friends of whom he
had never spoken.
If no arrangement had been made to 'go anywhere,' it was at the Verdurins'
that Swann would find the 'little nucleus' assembled, but he never
appeared there except in the evenings, and would hardly ever accept their
invitations to dinner, in spite of Odette's entreaties.
"I could dine with you alone somewhere, if you'd rather," she suggested.
"But what about Mme. Verdurin?"
"Oh, that's quite simple. I need only say that my dress wasn't ready, or
that my cab came late. There is always some excuse."
"How charming of you."
But Swann said to himself that, if he could make Odette feel (by
consenting to meet her only after dinner) that there were other pleasures
which he preferred to that of her company, then the desire that she felt
for his would be all the longer in reaching the point of satiety.
Pages:
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420