He would go in search of her, and,
when he opened the door, on Odette's blushing countenance, as soon as she
caught sight of Swann, would appear--changing the curve of her lips, the
look in her eyes, the moulding of her cheeks--an all-absorbing smile. Once
he was left alone he would see again that smile, and her smile of the day
before, another with which she had greeted him sometime else, the smile
which had been her answer, in the carriage that night, when he had asked
her whether she objected to his rearranging her cattleyas; and the life of
Odette at all other times, since he knew nothing of it, appeared to him
upon a neutral and colourless background, like those sheets of sketches by
Watteau upon which one sees, here and there, in every corner and in all
directions, traced in three colours upon the buff paper, innumerable
smiles. But, once in a while, illuminating a chink of that existence which
Swann still saw as a complete blank, even if his mind assured him that it
was not so, because he was unable to imagine anything that might occupy
it, some friend who knew them both, and suspecting that they were in love,
had not dared to tell him anything about her that was of the least
importance, would describe Odette's figure, as he had seen her, that very
morning, going on foot up the Rue Abbattucci, in a cape trimmed with
skunks, wearing a Rembrandt hat, and a bunch of violets in her bosom.
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