Page 340 - swanns-way

ed by a gas-jet inside), to the two drawing-rooms, large and
small. These were entered through a narrow lobby, the wall
of which, chequered with the lozenges of a wooden trellis
such as you see on garden walls, only gilded, was lined from
end to end by a long rectangular box in which bloomed,
as though in a hothouse, a row of large chrysanthemums,
at that time still uncommon, though by no means so large
as the mammoth blossoms which horticulturists have
since succeeded in making grow. Swann was irritated, as
a rule, by the sight of these flowers, which had then been
‘the rage’ in Paris for about a year, but it had pleased him,
on this occasion, to see the gloom of the little lobby shot
with rays of pink and gold and white by the fragrant pet-
als of these ephemeral stars, which kindle their cold fires
in the murky atmosphere of winter afternoons. Odette had
received him in a tea-gown of pink silk, which left her neck
and arms bare. She had made him sit down beside her in
one of the many mysterious little retreats which had been
contrived in the various recesses of the room, sheltered by
enormous palmtrees growing out of pots of Chinese porce-
lain, or by screens upon which were fastened photographs
and fans and bows of ribbon. She had said at once, ‘You’re
not comfortable there; wait a minute, I’ll arrange things
for you,’ and with a titter of laughter, the complacency of
which implied that some little invention of her own was
being brought into play, she had installed behind his head
and beneath his feet great cushions of Japanese silk, which
she pummelled and buffeted as though determined to lav-
ish on him all her riches, and regardless of their value. But

340 Swann’s Way