Page 325 - swanns-way

the recipe for a dish, the dates of a painter’s birth and death,
and the titles of his works. Sometimes, in spite of himself, he
would let himself go so far as to utter a criticism of a work of
art, or of some one’s interpretation of life, but then he would
cloak his words in a tone of irony, as though he did not alto-
gether associate himself with what he was saying. But now,
like a confirmed invalid whom, all of a sudden, a change of
air and surroundings, or a new course of treatment, or, as
sometimes happens, an organic change in himself, sponta-
neous and unaccountable, seems to have so far recovered
from his malady that he begins to envisage the possibility,
hitherto beyond all hope, of starting to lead—and better late
than never—a wholly different life, Swann found in himself,
in the memory of the phrase that he had heard, in certain
other sonatas which he had made people play over to him,
to see whether he might not, perhaps, discover his phrase
among them, the presence of one of those invisible realities
in which he had ceased to believe, but to which, as though
the music had had upon the moral barrenness from which
he was suffering a sort of recreative influence, he was con-
scious once again of a desire, almost, indeed, of the power
to consecrate his life. But, never having managed to find out
whose work it was that he had heard played that evening, he
had been unable to procure a copy, and finally had forgot-
ten the quest. He had indeed, in the course of the next few
days, encountered several of the people who had been at the
party with him, and had questioned them; but most of them
had either arrived after or left before the piece was played;
some had indeed been in the house, but had gone into an-

325