Page 114 - swanns-way

able by all the world, but for him an intimate friend.
And so—on the pretext that some lesson, the hour of
which had been altered, now came at such an awkward time
that it had already more than once prevented me, and would
continue to prevent me, from seeing my uncle—one day,
not one of the days which he set apart for our visits, I took
advantage of the fact that my parents had had luncheon ear-
lier than usual; I slipped out and, instead of going to read
the playbills on their column, for which purpose I was al-
lowed to go out unaccompanied, I ran all the way to his
house. I noticed before his door a carriage and pair, with red
carnations on the horses’ blinkers and in the coachman’s
buttonhole. As I climbed the staircase I could hear laugh-
ter and a woman’s voice, and, as soon as I had rung, silence
and the sound of shutting doors. The man-servant who let
me in appeared embarrassed, and said that my uncle was
extremely busy and probably could not see me; he went in,
however, to announce my arrival, and the same voice I had
heard before said: ‘Oh, yes! Do let him come in; just for a
moment; it will be so amusing. Is that his photograph there,
on your desk? And his mother (your niece, isn’t she?) beside
it? The image of her, isn’t he? I should so like to see the little
chap, just for a second.’
I could hear my uncle grumbling and growing angry; fi-
nally the manservant told me to come in.
On the table was the same plate of marchpanes that was
always there; my uncle wore the same alapca coat as on oth-
er days; but opposite to him, in a pink silk dress with a great
necklace of pearls about her throat, sat a young woman who

114 Swann’s Way