At any
rate, this loathsome expedition, it would not be Swann who had to pay for
it. Ah! if he could only manage to prevent it, if she could sprain her
ankle before starting, if the driver of the carriage which was to take her
to the station would consent (no matter how great the bribe) to smuggle
her to some place where she could be kept for a time in seclusion, that
perfidious woman, her eyes tinselled with a smile of complicity for
Forcheville, which was what Odette had become for Swann in the last
forty-eight hours.
But she was never that for very long; after a few days the shining, crafty
eyes lost their brightness and their duplicity, that picture of an
execrable Odette saying to Forcheville: "Look at him storming!" began to
grow pale and to dissolve. Then gradually reappeared and rose before him,
softly radiant, the face of the other Odette, of that Odette who al^o
turned with a smile to Forcheville, but with a smile in which there was
nothing but affection for Swann, when she said: "You mustn't stay long,
for this gentleman doesn't much like my having visitors when he's here.
Oh! if you only knew the creature as I know him!" that same smile with
which she used to thank Swann for some instance of his courtesy which she
prized so highly, for some advice for which she had asked him in one of
those grave crises in her life, when she could turn to him alone.
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