Page 311 - swanns-way

claimed in a tone rendered brutal by his astonishment, for
the smallest piece of news would always take utterly un-
awares this man who imagined himself to be perpetually
in readiness for anything. And seeing that no one answered
him, ‘Swann! Who on earth is Swann?’ he shouted, in a
frenzy of anxiety which subsided as soon as Mme. Verdu-
rin had explained, ‘Why, Odette’s friend, whom she told us
about.’
‘Ah, good, good; that’s all right, then,’ answered the Doc-
tor, at once mollified. As for the painter, he was overjoyed
at the prospect of Swann’s appearing at the Verdurins’, be-
cause he supposed him to be in love with Odette, and was
always ready to assist at lovers’ meetings. ‘Nothing amus-
es me more than match-making,’ he confided to Cottard; ‘I
have been tremendously successful, even with women!’
In telling the Verdurins that Swann was extreme-
ly ‘smart,’ Odette had alarmed them with the prospect of
another ‘bore.’ When he arrived, however, he made an ex-
cellent impression, an indirect cause of which, though they
did not know it, was his familiarity with the best society. He
had, indeed, one of those advantages which men who have
lived and moved in the world enjoy over others, even men
of intelligence and refinement, who have never gone into
society, namely that they no longer see it transfigured by
the longing or repulsion with which it fills the imagination,
but regard it as quite unimportant. Their good nature, freed
from all taint of snobbishness and from the fear of seem-
ing too friendly, grown independent, in fact, has the ease,
the grace of movemsnt of a trained gymnast each of whose

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