There she was, often tired, her face left blank for
the nonce by that eager, feverish preoccupation with the unknown things
which made Swann suffer; she would push back her hair with both hands; her
forehead, her whole face would seem to grow larger; then, suddenly, some
ordinary human thought, some worthy sentiment such as is to be found in
all creatures when, in a moment of rest or meditation, they are free to
express themselves, would flash out from her eyes like a ray of gold. And
immediately the whole of her face would light up like a grey landscape,
swathed in clouds which, suddenly, are swept away and the dull scene
transfigured, at the moment of the sun's setting. The life which occupied
Odette at such times, even the future which she seemed to be dreamily
regarding, Swann could have shared with her. No evil disturbance seemed to
have left any effect on them. Rare as they became, those moments did not
occur in vain. By the process of memory, Swann joined the fragments
together, abolished the intervals between them, cast, as in molten gold,
the image of an Odette compact of kindness and tranquillity, for whom he
was to make, later on (as we shall see in the second part of this story)
sacrifices which the other Odette would never have won from him.
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