Page 467 - swanns-way

vindictive reply, the terms of which he amused himself by
selecting and declaiming aloud, as though he had actually
received her letter.
The very next day, her letter came. She wrote that the Ver-
durins and their friends had expressed a desire to be present
at these performances of Wagner, and that, if he would be
so good as to send her the money, she would be able at last,
after going so often to their house, to have the pleasure of
entertaining the Verdurins in hers. Of him she said not a
word; it was to be taken for granted that their presence at
Bayreuth would be a bar to his.
Then that annihilating answer, every word of which he
had carefully rehearsed overnight, without venturing to
hope that it could ever be used, he had the satisfaction of
having it conveyed to her. Alas! he felt only too certain that
with the money which she had, or could easily procure, she
would be able, all the same, to take a house at Bayreuth, since
she wished to do so, she who was incapable of distinguish-
ing between Bach and Clapisson. Let her take it, then; she
would have to live in it more frugally, that was all. No means
(as there would have been if he had replied by sending her
several thousand-franc notes) of organising, each evening,
in her hired castle, those exquisite little suppers, after which
she might perhaps be seized by the whim (which, it was pos-
sible, had never yet seized her) of falling into the arms of
Forcheville. At any rate, this loathsome expedition, it would
not be Swann who had to pay for it. Ah! if he could only
manage to prevent it, if she could sprain her ankle before
starting, if the driver of the carriage which was to take her

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