But tell me, why did you bow to that Cambremer person, are you
also her neighbour in the country?"
Mme. de Saint-Euverte, seeing that the Princess seemed quite happy talking
to Swann, had drifted away.
"But you are, yourself, Princess!"
"I! Why, they must have 'countries' everywhere, those creatures! Don't I
wish I had!"
"No, not the Cambremers; her own people. She was a Legrandin, and used to
come to Combray. I don't know whether you are aware that you are Comtesse
de Combray, and that the Chapter owes you a due."
"I don't know what the Chapter owes me, but I do know that I'm 'touched'
for a hundred francs, every year, by the Cure, which is a due that I could
very well do without. But surely these Cambremers have rather a startling
name. It ends just in time, but it ends badly!" she said with a laugh.
"It begins no better." Swann took the point.
"Yes; that double abbreviation!"
"Some one very angry and very proper who didn't dare to finish the first
word."
"But since he couldn't stop himself beginning the second, he'd have done
better to finish the first and be done with it. We are indulging in the
most refined form of humour, my dear Charles, in the very best of
taste--but how tiresome it is that I never see you now," she went on in a
coaxing tone, "I do so love talking to you.
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