Page 396 - swanns-way

enraptured that the table-talk should have proved so enter-
taining on the very night that Forcheville was dining with
them for the first time. ‘Hallo, you!’ she turned to her hus-
band, ‘what’s the matter with you, sitting there gaping like a
great animal? You know, though, don’t you,’ she apologised
for him to the painter, ‘that he can talk quite well when he
chooses; anybody would think it was the first time he had
ever listened to you. If you had only seen him while you
were speaking; he was just drinking it all in. And to-mor-
row he will tell us everything you said, without missing a
word.’
‘No, really, I’m not joking!’ protested the painter, en-
chanted by the success of his speech. ‘You all look as if you
thought I was pulling your legs, that it was just a trick. I’ll
take you to see the show, and then you can say whether I’ve
been exaggerating; I’ll bet you anything you like, you’ll
come away more ‘up in the air’ than I am!’
‘But we don’t suppose for a moment that you’re exag-
gerating; we only want you to go on with your dinner, and
my husband too. Give M. Biche some more sole, can’t you
see his has got cold? We’re not in any hurry; you’re dashing
round as if the house was on fire. Wait a little; don’t serve
the salad just yet.’
Mme. Cottard, who was a shy woman and spoke but sel-
dom, was not lacking, for all that, in self-assurance when a
happy inspiration put the right word in her mouth. She felt
that it would be well received; the thought gave her confi-
dence, and what she was doing was done with the object not
so much of shining herself, as of helping her husband on in

396 Swann’s Way