Page 335 - swanns-way

then struck by the number—only eight at table—‘Are these
luncheons what you would describe as ‘intimate’?’ he in-
quired briskly, not so much out of idle curiosity as in his
linguistic zeal.
But so great and glorious a figure was the President of
the French Republic in the eyes of Dr. Cottard that nei-
ther the modesty of Swann nor the spite of Mme. Verdurin
could ever wholly efface that first impression, and he nev-
er sat down to dinner with the Verdurins without asking
anxiously, ‘D’you think we shall see M. Swann here this eve-
ning? He is a personal friend of M. Grévy’s. I suppose that
means he’s what you’d call a ‘gentleman’?’ He even went to
the length of offering Swann a card of invitation to the Den-
tal Exhibition.
‘This will let you in, and anyone you take with you,’ he
explained, ‘but dogs are not admitted. I’m just warning you,
you understand, because some friends of mine went there
once, who hadn’t been told, and there was the devil to pay.’
As for M. Verdurin, he did not fail to observe the dis-
tressing effect upon his wife of the discovery that Swann
had influential friends of whom he had never spoken.
If no arrangement had been made to ‘go anywhere,’ it
was at the Verdurins’ that Swann would find the ‘little nu-
cleus’ assembled, but he never appeared there except in the
evenings, and would hardly ever accept their invitations to
dinner, in spite of Odette’s entreaties.
‘I could dine with you alone somewhere, if you’d rather,’
she suggested.
‘But what about Mme. Verdurin?’

335