Page 487 - swanns-way

docile body which he had pressed tightly in his arms and
explored with his fingers, a woman of whom he might one
day come into absolute possession if he succeeded in mak-
ing himself indispensable to her. There she was, often tired,
her face left blank for the nonce by that eager, feverish pre-
occupation with the unknown things which made Swann
suffer; she would push back her hair with both hands; her
forehead, her whole face would seem to grow larger; then,
suddenly, some ordinary human thought, some worthy sen-
timent such as is to be found in all creatures when, in a
moment of rest or meditation, they are free to express them-
selves, would flash out from her eyes like a ray of gold. And
immediately the whole of her face would light up like a grey
landscape, swathed in clouds which, suddenly, are swept
away and the dull scene transfigured, at the moment of the
sun’s setting. The life which occupied Odette at such times,
even the future which she seemed to be dreamily regarding,
Swann could have shared with her. No evil disturbance
seemed to have left any effect on them. Rare as they became,
those moments did not occur in vain. By the process of
memory, Swann joined the fragments together, abolished
the intervals between them, cast, as in molten gold, the im-
age of an Odette compact of kindness and tranquillity, for
whom he was to make, later on (as we shall see in the second
part of this story) sacrifices which the other Odette would
never have won from him. But how rare those moments
were, and how seldom he now saw her! Even in regard to
their evening meetings, she would never tell him until the
last minute whether she would be able to see him, for, reck-

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