Page 110 - swanns-way

tion of the sky, and its furniture upholstered in satin, as at
my grandparents’, only yellow; then we would enter what he
called his ‘study,’ a room whose walls were hung with prints
which shewed, against a dark background, a plump and rosy
goddess driving a car, or standing upon a globe, or wear-
ing a star on her brow; pictures which were popular under
the Second Empire because there was thought to be some-
thing about them that suggested Pompeii, which were then
generally despised, and which now people are beginning to
collect again for one single and consistent reason (despite
any others which they may advance), namely, that they sug-
gest the Second Empire. And there I would stay with my
uncle until his man came, with a message from the coach-
man, to ask him at what time he would like the carriage. My
uncle would then be lost in meditation, while his astonished
servant stood there, not daring to disturb him by the least
movement, wondering and waiting for his answer, which
never varied. For in the end, after a supreme crisis of hesita-
tion, my uncle would utter, infallibly, the words: ‘A quarter
past two,’ which the servant would echo with amazement,
but without disputing them: ‘A quarter past two! Very good,
sir... I will go and tell him....’
At this date I was a lover of the theatre: a Platonic lover,
of necessity, since my parents had not yet allowed me to en-
ter one, and so incorrect was the picture I drew for myself of
the pleasures to be enjoyed there that I almost believed that
each of the spectators looked, as into a stereoscope, upon a
stage and scenery which existed for himself alone, though
closely resembling the thousand other spectacles presented

110 Swann’s Way