I know his sort, the
dear, good friend of the family, who pulls you all to pieces on the stairs
as he's going away."
"Didn't I say so?" retorted her husband. "He's simply a failure; a poor
little wretch who goes through life mad with jealousy of anything that's
at all big."
Had the truth been known, there was not one of the 'faithful' who was not
infinitely more malicious than Swann; but the others would all take the
precaution of tempering their malice with obvious pleasantries, with
little sparks of emotion and cordiality; while the least indication of
reserve on Swann's part, undraped in any such conventional formula as "Of
course, I don't want to say anything--" to which he would have scorned to
descend, appeared to them a deliberate act of treachery. There are certain
original and distinguished authors in whom the least 'freedom of speech'
is thought revolting because they have not begun by flattering the public
taste, and serving up to it the commonplace expressions to which it is
used; it was by the same process that Swann infuriated M. Verdurin. In
his case as in theirs it was the novelty of his language which led his
audience to suspect the blackness of his designs.
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