Page 152 - swanns-way

upon all those subjects which he had not been able to take
up in his writings, and on which I would fain have heard
him utter oracles; and that, above all, when she went to visit
other towns, he would be walking by her side, unrecogn-
ised and glorious, like the gods who came down, of old,
from heaven to dwell among mortal men: then I realised
both the rare worth of a creature such as Mile. Swann, and,
at the same time, how coarse and ignorant I should appear
to her; and I felt so keenly how pleasant and yet how im-
possible it would be for me to become her friend that I was
filled at once with longing and with despair. And usually,
from this time forth, when I thought of her, I would see her
standing before the porch of a cathedral, explaining to me
what each of the statues meant, and, with a smile which was
my highest commendation, presenting me, as her friend, to
Bergotte. And invariably the charm of all the fancies which
the thought of cathedrals used to inspire in me, the charm
of the hills and valleys of the He de France and of the plains
of Normandy, would radiate brightness and beauty over the
picture I had formed in my mind of Mile. Swann; nothing
more remained but to know and to love her. Once we believe
that a fellow-creature has a share in some unknown exis-
tence to which that creature’s love for ourselves can win us
admission, that is, of all the preliminary conditions which
Love exacts, the one to which he attaches most importance,
the one which makes him generous or indifferent as to the
rest. Even those women who pretend that they judge a man
by his exterior only, see in that exterior an emanation from
some special way of life. And that is why they fall in love

152 Swann’s Way