Page 421 - swanns-way

and desirable woman, the attraction which her body held
for him had aroused a painful longing to secure the absolute
mastery of even the tiniest particles of her heart. And he
had begun to attach an incalculable value to those moments
passed in her house in the evenings, when he held her upon
his knee, made her tell him what she thought about this or
that, and counted over that treasure to which, alone of all
his earthly possessions, he still clung. And so, after this din-
ner, drawing her aside, he took care to thank her effusively,
seeking to indicate to her by the extent of his gratitude the
corresponding intensity of the pleasures which it was in
her power to bestow on him, the supreme pleasure being to
guarantee him immunity, for as long as his love should last
and he remain vulnerable, from the assaults of jealousy.
When he came away from his banquet, the next evening,
it was pouring rain, and he had nothing but his victoria. A
friend offered to take him home in a closed carriage, and
as Odette, by the fact of her having invited him to come,
had given him an assurance that she was expecting no one
else, he could, with a quiet mind and an untroubled heart,
rather than set off thus in the rain, have gone home and to
bed. But perhaps, if she saw that he seemed not to adhere
to his resolution to end every evening, without exception,
in her company, she might grow careless, and fail to keep
free for him just the one evening on which he particularly
desired it.
It was after eleven when he reached her door, and as he
made his apology for having been unable to come away ear-
lier, she complained that it was indeed very late; the storm

421