Then she would interrupt with a brisk, "More in
it? What?... Do tell me!", but he did not tell her, for he realised how
petty it would appear to her, and how different from what she had
expected, less sensational and less touching; he was afraid, too, lest,
disillusioned in the matter of art, she might at the same time be
disillusioned in the greater matter of love.
With the result that she found Swann inferior, intellectually, to what she
had supposed. "You're always so reserved; I can't make you out." She
marvelled increasingly at his indifference to money, at his courtesy to
everyone alike, at the delicacy of his mind. And indeed it happens, often
enough, to a greater man than Swann ever was, to a scientist or artist,
when he is not wholly misunderstood by the people among whom he lives,
that the feeling in them which proves that they have been convinced of the
superiority of his intellect is created not by any admiration for his
ideas--for those are entirely beyond them--but by their respect for what
they term his good qualities. There was also the respect with which Odette
was inspired by the thought of Swann's social position, although she had
no desire that he should attempt to secure invitations for herself.
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