Page 192 - swanns-way

in the profundity of his vision, on so distant a point of the
horizon that he could not see us, and so had not to acknowl-
edge our presence. His face emerged, still with an air of
innocence, from his straight and pliant coat, which looked
as though conscious of having been led astray, in spite of it-
self, and plunged into surroundings of a detested splendour.
And a spotted necktie, stirred by the breezes of the Square,
continued to float in front of Legrandin, like the standard
of his proud isolation, of his noble independence. Just as we
reached the house my mother discovered that we had for-
gotten the ‘Saint-Honoré,’ and asked my father to go back
with me and tell them to send it up at once. Near the church
we met Legrandin, coming towards us with the same lady,
whom he was escorting to her carriage. He brushed past us,
and did not interrupt what he was saying to her, but gave
us, out of the corner of his blue eye, a little sign, which be-
gan and ended, so to speak, inside his eyelids, and as it did
not involve the least movement of his facial muscles, man-
aged to pass quite unperceived by the lady; but, striving to
compensate by the intensity of his feelings for the some-
what restricted field in which they had to find expression,
he made that blue chink, which was set apart for us, sparkle
with all the animation of cordiality, which went far beyond
mere playfulness, and almost touched the border-line of
roguery; he subtilised the refinements of good-fellowship
into a wink of connivance, a hint, a hidden meaning, a se-
cret understanding, all the mysteries of complicity in a plot,
and finally exalted his assurances of friendship to the level
of protestations of affection, even of a declaration of love,

192 Swann’s Way