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excuse in the idea, which their idleness offers to their in-
telligence, of objects as worthy of their interest as any that
could be attained by art or learning, the idea that ‘Life’ con-
tains situations more interesting and more romantic than
all the romances ever written. So, at least, he would assure
and had no difficulty in persuading the more subtle among
his friends in the fashionable world, notably the Baron de
Charlus, whom he liked to amuse with stories of the star-
tling adventures that had befallen him, such as when he had
met a woman in the train, and had taken her home with
him, before discovering that she was the sister of a reigning
monarch, in whose hands were gathered, at that moment,
all the threads of European politics, of which he found him-
self kept informed in the most delightful fashion, or when,
in the complexity of circumstances, it depended upon the
choice which the Conclave was about to make whether he
might or might not become the lover of somebody’s cook.
It was not only the brilliant phalanx of virtuous dow-
agers, generals and academicians, to whom he was bound
by such close ties, that Swann compelled with so much
cynicism to serve him as panders. All his friends were ac-
customed to receive, from time to time, letters which called
on them for a word of recommendation or introduction,
with a diplomatic adroitness which, persisting through-
out all his successive ‘affairs’ and using different pretexts,
revealed more glaringly than the clumsiest indiscretion, a
permanent trait in his character and an unvarying quest. I
used often to recall to myself when, many years later, I began
to take an interest in his character because of the similari-

298 Swann’s Way