Page 313 - swanns-way

Swann found him very pleasant. ‘Perhaps you will be more
highly favoured than I have been,’ Mme. Verdurin broke in,
with mock resentment of the favour, ‘perhaps you will be
allowed to see Cottard’s portrait’ (for which she had given
the painter a commission). ‘Take care, Master Biche,’ she
reminded the painter, whom it was a time-honoured pleas-
antry to address as ‘Master,’ ‘to catch that nice look in his
eyes, that witty little twinkle. You know, what I want to have
most of all is his smile; that’s what I’ve asked you to paint—
the portrait of his smile.’ And since the phrase struck her
as noteworthy, she repeated it very loud, so as to make sure
that as many as possible of her guests should hear it, and
even made use of some indefinite pretext to draw the circle
closer before she uttered it again. Swann begged to be intro-
duced to everyone, even to an old friend of the Verdurins,
called Saniette, whose shyness, simplicity and good-nature
had deprived him of all the consideration due to his skill in
palaeography, his large fortune, and the distinguished fam-
ily to which he belonged. When he spoke, his words came
with a confusion which was delightful to hear because one
felt that it indicated not so much a defect in his speech as
a quality of his soul, as it were a survival from the age of
innocence which he had never wholly outgrown. All the
cop-sonants which he did not manage to pronounce seemed
like harsh utterances of which his gentle lips were incapable.
By asking to be made known to M. Saniette, Swann made
M. Verdurin reverse the usual form of introduction (saying,
in fact, with emphasis on the distinction: ‘M. Swann, pray
let me present to you our friend Saniette’) but he aroused in

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