Page 166 - swanns-way

ty of recommending any healthier mode of life, had become
gradually resigned to its observance, but in the village as
well, where, three streets away, a tradesman who had to
hammer nails into a packing-case would send first to Fran-
çoise to make sure that my aunt was not ‘resting’—her ‘little
jog-trot’ was, none the less, brutally disturbed on one occa-
sion in this same year. Like a fruit hidden among its leaves,
which has grown and ripened unobserved by man, until it
falls of its own accord, there came upon us one night the
kitchen-maid’s confinement. Her pains were unbearable,
and, as there was no midwife in Combray, Françoise had
to set off before dawn to fetch one from Thiberzy. My aunt
was unable to ‘rest,’ owing to the cries of the girl, and as
Françoise, though the distance was nothing, was very late
in returning, her services were greatly missed. And so, in
the course of the morning, my mother said to me: ‘Run up-
stairs, and see if your aunt wants anything.’
I went into the first of her two rooms, and through the
open door of the other saw my aunt lying on her side, asleep.
I could hear her breathing, in what was almost distinguish-
able as a snore. I was just going to slip away when something,
probably the sound of my entry, interrupted her sleep, and
made it ‘change speed,’ as they say of motorcars nowadays,
for the music of her snore broke off for a second and began
again on a lower note; then she awoke, and half turned her
face, which I could see for the first time; a kind of horror
was imprinted on it; plainly she had just escaped from some
terrifying dream. She could not see me from where she was
lying, and I stood there not knowing whether I ought to go

166 Swann’s Way