Page 398 - swanns-way

enough to take us to all the new pieces that are worth going
to, and so I’m certain to see this Francillon sooner or later,
and then I shall know what to think. But I do feel such a
fool about it, I must confess, for, whenever I pay a call any-
where, I find everybody talking—it’s only natural—about
that wretched Japanese salad. Really and truly, one’s begin-
ning to get just a little tired of hearing about it,’ she went
on, seeing that Swann seemed less interested than she had
hoped in so burning a topic. ‘I must admit, though, that it’s
sometimes quite amusing, the way they joke about it: I’ve
got a friend, now, who is most original, though she’s really
a beautiful woman, most popular in society, goes every-
where, and she tells me that she got her cook to make one
of these Japanese salads, putting in everything that young
M. Dumas says you’re to put in, in the play. Then she asked
just a few friends to come and taste it. I was not among the
favoured few, I’m sorry to say. But she told us all about it on
her next ‘day’; it seems it was quite horrible, she made us all
laugh till we cried. I don’t know; perhaps it was the way she
told it,’ Mme. Cottard added doubtfully, seeing that Swann
still looked grave.
And, imagining that it was, perhaps, because he had not
been amused by Francillon: ‘Well, I daresay I shall be dis-
appointed with it, after all. I don’t suppose it’s as good as
the piece Mme. de Crécy worships, Serge Panine. There’s
a play, if you like; so deep, makes you think! But just fancy
giving a receipt for a salad on the stage of the Théâtre-Fran-
çais! Now, Serge Panine—! But then, it’s like everything that
comes from the pen of M. Georges Ohnet, it’s so well writ-

398 Swann’s Way