Page 356 - swanns-way

take their time (as the saying is), begin by remaining for a
moment in their original position, as though seeking to find
in it a starting-point, a source of strength and motion. And
probably, if the coachman had interrupted him with, ‘I have
found the lady,’ he would have answered, ‘Oh, yes, of course;
that’s what I told you to do. I had quite forgotten,’ and would
have continued to discuss his supply of firewood, so as to
hide from his servant the emotion that he had felt, and to
give himself time to break away from the thraldom of his
anxieties and abandon himself to pleasure.
The coachman came back, however, with the report that
he could not find her anywhere, and added the advice, as an
old and privileged servant, ‘I think, sir, that all we can do
now is to go home.’
But the air of indifference which Swann could so lightly
assume when Rémi uttered his final, unalterable response,
fell from him like a cast-off cloak when he saw Rémi attempt
to make him abandon hope and retire from the quest.
‘Certainly not!’ he exclaimed. ‘We must find the lady. It
is most important. She would be extremely put out—it’s a
business matter—and vexed with me if she didn’t see me.’
‘But I do not see how the lady can be vexed, sir,’ answered
Rémi, ‘since it was she that went away without waiting for
you, sir, and said she was going to Prévost’s, and then wasn’t
there.’
Meanwhile the restaurants were closing, and their lights
began to go out. Under the trees of the boulevards there were
still a few people strolling to and fro, barely distinguish-
able in the gathering darkness. Now and then the ghost of

356 Swann’s Way