Page 374 - swanns-way

of her before he’d finished.’ If, then, Swann tried to shew
her in what artistic beauty consisted, how one ought to ap-
preciate poetry or painting, after a minute or two she would
cease to listen, saying: ‘Yes... I never thought it would be like
that.’ And he felt that her disappointment was so great that
he preferred to lie to her, assuring her that what he had said
was nothing, that he had only touched the surface, that he
had not time to go into it all properly, that there was more
in it than that. Then she would interrupt with a brisk, ‘More
in it? What?... Do tell me!’, but he did not tell her, for he
realised how petty it would appear to her, and how differ-
ent from what she had expected, less sensational and less
touching; he was afraid, too, lest, disillusioned in the mat-
ter of art, she might at the same time be disillusioned in the
greater matter of love.
With the result that she found Swann inferior, intellectu-
ally, to what she had supposed. ‘You’re always so reserved;
I can’t make you out.’ She marvelled increasingly at his in-
difference to money, at his courtesy to everyone alike, at the
delicacy of his mind. And indeed it happens, often enough,
to a greater man than Swann ever was, to a scientist or artist,
when he is not wholly misunderstood by the people among
whom he lives, that the feeling in them which proves that
they have been convinced of the superiority of his intellect
is created not by any admiration for his ideas—for those are
entirely beyond them—but by their respect for what they
term his good qualities. There was also the respect with
which Odette was inspired by the thought of Swann’s social
position, although she had no desire that he should attempt

374 Swann’s Way