Isn't that so, M. Swann? I believe it's the first time you've
met him," she went on, to emphasize the fact that it was to her that Swann
owed the introduction. "Isn't that so; wasn't he delicious, our Brichot?"
Swann bowed politely.
"No? You weren't interested?" she asked dryly.
"Oh, but I assure you, I was quite enthralled. He is perhaps a little too
peremptory, a little too jovial for my taste. I should like to see him a
little less confident at times, a little more tolerant, but one feels that
he knows a great deal, and on the whole he seems a very sound fellow."
The party broke up very late. Cottard's first words to his wife were: "I
have rarely seen Mme. Verdurin in such form as she was to-night."
"What exactly is your Mme. Verdurin? A bit of a bad hat, eh?" said
Forcheville to the painter, to whom he had offered a 'lift.' Odette
watched his departure with regret; she dared not refuse to let Swann take
her home, but she was moody and irritable in the carriage, and, when he
asked whether he might come in, replied, "I suppose so," with an impatient
shrug of her shoulders. When they had all gone, Mme.
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