Swann was not invited; Dr.
Cottard, who, having been summoned to attend a serious case in the
country, had not seen the Verdurins for some days, and had been prevented
from appearing at Chatou, said, on the evening after this dinner, as he
sat down to table at their house:
"Why, aren't we going to see M. Swann this evening? He is quite what you
might call a personal friend..." "I sincerely trust that we sha'n't!"
cried Mme. Verdurin. "Heaven preserve us from him; he's too deadly for
words, a stupid, ill-bred boor."
On hearing these words Cottard exhibited an intense astonishment blended
with entire submission, as though in the face of a scientific truth which
contradicted everything that he had previously believed, but was supported
by an irresistible weight of evidence; with timorous emotion he bowed his
head over his plate, and merely replied: "Oh--oh--oh--oh--oh!" traversing,
in an orderly retirement of his forces, into the depths of his being,
along a descending scale, the whole compass of his voice. After which
there was no more talk of Swann at the Verdurins'.
- - -
And so that drawing-room which had brought Swann and Odette together
became an obstacle in the way of their meeting.
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