Page 327 - swanns-way

nata for the piano and violin), he held it safe, could have it
again to himself, at home, as often as he would, could study
its language and acquire its secret.
And so, when the pianist had finished, Swann crossed
the room and thanked him with a vivacity which delighted
Mme. Verdurin.
‘Isn’t he charming?’ she asked Swann, ‘doesn’t he just
understand it, his sonata, the little wretch? You never
dreamed, did you, that a piano could be made to express all
that? Upon my word, there’s everything in it except the pia-
no! I’m caught out every time I hear it; I think I’m listening
to an orchestra. Though it’s better, really, than an orchestra,
more complete.’
The young pianist bent over her as he answered, smiling
and underlining each of his words as though he were mak-
ing an epigram: ‘You are most generous to me.’
And while Mme. Verdurin was saying to her husband,
‘Run and fetch him a glass of orangeade; it’s well earned!’
Swann began to tell Odette how he had fallen in love with
that little phrase. When their hostess, who was a little way
off, called out, ‘Well! It looks to me as though some one was
saying nice things to you, Odette!’ she replied, ‘Yes, very
nice,’ and he found her simplicity delightful. Then he asked
for some information about this Vinteuil; what else he had
done, and at what period in his life he had composed the
sonata;—what meaning the little phrase could have had for
him, that was what Swann wanted most to know.
But none of these people who professed to admire this
musician (when Swann had said that the sonata was really

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