Page 440 - swanns-way

come to him from without.
>From without, however, everything brought him fresh
suffering. He decided to separate Odette from Forcheville,
by taking her away for a few days to the south. But he imag-
ined that she was coveted by every male person in the hotel,
and that she coveted them in return. And so he, who, in
old days, when he travelled, used always to seek out new
people and crowded places, might now be seen fleeing sav-
agely from human society as if it had cruelly injured him.
And how could he not have turned misanthrope, when in
every man he saw a potential lover for Odette? Thus his jeal-
ousy did even more than the happy, passionate desire which
he had originally felt for Odette had done to alter Swann’s
character, completely changing, in the eyes of the world,
even the outward signs by which that character had been
intelligible.
A month after the evening on which he had intercept-
ed and read Odette’s letter to Forcheville, Swann went to a
dinner which the Verdurins were giving in the Bois. As the
party was breaking up he noticed a series of whispered dis-
cussions between Mme. Verdurin and several of her guests,
and thought that he heard the pianist being reminded to
come next day to a party at Chatou; now he, Swann, had not
been invited to any party.
The Verdurins had spoken only in whispers, and in vague
terms, but the painter, perhaps without thinking, shouted
out: ‘There must be no lights of any sort, and he must play
the Moonlight Sonata in the dark, for us to see by.’
Mme. Verdurin, seeing that Swann was within ear-

440 Swann’s Way