Page 511 - swanns-way

nature with a short and squat and masculine figure; but suc-
cessive mortifications had given her a backward tilt, such
as one may observe in trees which have taken root on the
very edge of a precipice and are forced to grow backwards
to preserve their balance. Since she was obliged, in order to
console herself for not being quite on a level with the rest of
the Guermantes, to repeat to herself incessantly that it was
owing to the uncompromising rigidity of her principles and
pride that she saw so little of them, the constant iteration
had gradually remoulded her body, and had given her a sort
of ‘bearing’ which was accepted by the plebeian as a sign of
breeding, and even kindled, at times, a momentary spark in
the jaded eyes of old gentlemen in clubs. Had anyone sub-
jected Mme. de Gallardon’s conversation to that form of
analysis which by noting the relative frequency of its sev-
eral terms would furnish him with the key to a ciphered
message, he would at once have remarked that no expres-
sion, not even the commonest forms of speech, occurred in
it nearly so often as ‘at my cousins the Guermantes’s,’ ‘at my
aunt Guermantes’s,’ ‘Elzéar de Guermantes’s health,’ ‘my
cousin Guermantes’s box.’ If anyone spoke to her of a dis-
tinguished personage, she would reply that, although she
was not personally acquainted with him, she had seen him
hundreds of times at her aunt Guermantes’s, but she would
utter this reply in so icy a tone, with such a hollow sound,
that it was at once quite clear that if she did not know the
celebrity personally that was because of all the obstinate,
ineradicable principles against which her arching shoulders
were stretched back to rest, as on one of those ladders on

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