Page 455 - swanns-way

you here?’ and would have invited him to come and see her
at the hotel where she was staying with the Verdurins, if, on
the other hand, it was himself, Swann, that she encountered
there, she would be annoyed, would complain that she was
being followed, would love him less in consequence, might
even turn away in anger when she caught sight of him. ‘So,
then, I am not to be allowed to go away for a day anywhere!’
she would reproach him on her return, whereas in fact it
was he himself who was not allowed to go.
He had had the sudden idea, so as to contrive to visit
Compiègne and Pierrefonds without letting it be supposed
that his object was to meet Odette, of securing an invita-
tion from one of his friends, the Marquis de Forestelle, who
had a country house in that neighbourhood. This friend, to
whom Swann suggested the plan without disclosing its ulte-
rior purpose, was beside himself with joy; he did not conceal
his astonishment at Swann’s consenting at last, after fifteen
years, to come down and visit his property, and since he
did not (he told him) wish to stay there, promised to spend
some days, at least, in taking him for walks and excursions
in the district. Swann imagined himself down there already
with M. de Forestelle. Even before he saw Odette, even if he
did not succeed in seeing her there, what a joy it would be
to set foot on that soil where, not knowing the exact spot in
which, at any moment, she was to be found, he would feel
all around him the thrilling possibility of her suddenly ap-
pearing: in the courtyard of the Château, now beautiful in
his eyes since it was on her account that he had gone to visit
it; in all the streets of the town, which struck him as roman-

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