Page 429 - swanns-way

few days earlier, and for the first time, in Odette’s eyes. It
was after dinner at the Verdurins’. Whether it was because
Forcheville, aware that Saniette, his brother-in-law, was not
in favour with them, had decided to make a butt of him,
and to shine at his expense, or because he had been an-
noyed by some awkward remark which Saniette had made
to him, although it had passed unnoticed by the rest of the
party who knew nothing of whatever tactless allusion it
might conceal, or possibly because he had been for some
time looking out for an opportunity of securing the expul-
sion from the house of a fellow-guest who knew rather too
much about him, and whom he knew to be so nice-minded
that he himself could not help feeling embarrassed at times
merely by his presence in the room, Forcheville replied to
Saniette’s tactless utterance with such a volley of abuse, go-
ing out of his way to insult him, emboldened, the louder he
shouted, by the fear, the pain, the entreaties of his victim,
that the poor creature, after asking Mme. Verdurin whether
he should stay and receiving no answer, had left the house
in stammering confusion and with tears in his eyes. Odette
had looked on, impassive, at this scene; but when the door
had closed behind Saniette, she had forced the normal ex-
pression of her face down, as the saying is, by several pegs,
so as to bring herself on to the same level of vulgarity as
Forcheville; her eyes had sparkled with a malicious smile
of congratulation upon his audacity, of ironical pity for the
poor wretch who had been its victim; she had darted at him
a look of complicity in the crime, which so clearly implied:
‘That’s finished him off, or I’m very much mistaken. Did

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