Page 293 - swanns-way

early and you will find him cured.’ From the beginning
of December it would make her quite ill to think that the
‘faithful’ might fail her on Christmas and New Year’s Days.
The pianist’s aunt insisted that he must accompany her, on
the latter, to a family dinner at her mother’s.
‘You don’t suppose she’ll die, your mother,’ exclaimed
Mme. Verdurin bitterly, ‘if you don’t have dinner with her
on New Year’s Day, like people in the provinces!’
Her uneasiness was kindled again in Holy Week: ‘Now
you, Doctor, you’re a sensible, broad-minded man; you’ll
come, of course, on Good Friday, just like any other day?’
she said to Cottard in the first year of the little ‘nucleus,’
in a loud and confident voice, as though there could be no
doubt of his answer. But she trembled as she waited for it,
for if he did not come she might find herself condemned to
dine alone.
‘I shall come on Good Friday—to say good-bye to you,
for we are going to spend the holidays in Auvergne.’
‘In Auvergne? To be eaten by fleas and all sorts of crea-
tures! A fine lot of good that will do you!’ And after a solemn
pause: ‘If you had only told us, we would have tried to get up
a party, and all gone there together, comfortably.’
And so, too, if one of the ‘faithful’ had a friend, or one
of the ladies a young man, who was liable, now and then, to
make them miss an evening, the Verdurins, who were not
in the least afraid of a woman’s having a lover, provided that
she had him in their company, loved him in their company
and did not prefer him to their company, would say: ‘Very
well, then, bring your friend along.’ And he would be put

293