Page 430 - swanns-way

you see what a fool he looked? He was actually crying,’ that
Forcheville, when his eyes met hers, sobered in a moment
from the anger, or pretended anger with which he was still
flushed, smiled as he explained: ‘He need only have made
himself pleasant and he’d have been here still; a good scold-
ing does a man no harm, at any time.’
One day when Swann had gone out early in the after-
noon to pay a call, and had failed to find the person at home
whom he wished to see, it occurred to him to go, instead,
to Odette, at an hour when, although he never went to her
house then as a rule, he knew that she was always at home,
resting or writing letters until tea-time, and would enjoy
seeing her for a moment, if it did not disturb her. The porter
told him that he believed Odette to be in; Swann rang the
bell, thought that he heard a sound, that he heard footsteps,
but no one came to the door. Anxious and annoyed, he went
round to the other little street, at the back of her house, and
stood beneath her bedroom window; the curtains were
drawn and he could see nothing; he knocked loudly upon
the pane, he shouted; still no one came. He could see that
the neighbours were staring at him. He turned away, think-
ing that, after all, he had perhaps been mistaken in believing
that he heard footsteps; but he remained so preoccupied
with the suspicion that he could turn his mind to nothing
else. After waiting for an hour, he returned. He found her at
home; she told him that she had been in the house when he
rang, but had been asleep; the bell had awakened her; she
had guessed that it must be Swann, and had run out to meet
him, but he had already gone. She had, of course, heard him

430 Swann’s Way