Page 513 - swanns-way

ly and obliging as possible. But she had a natural horror of
what she called ‘exaggerating,’ and always made a point of
letting people see that she ‘simply must not’ indulge in any
display of emotion that was not in keeping with the tone
of the circle in which she moved, although such displays
never failed to make an impression upon her, by virtue of
that spirit of imitation, akin to timidity, which is developed
in the most self-confident persons, by contact with an un-
familiar environment, even though it be inferior to their
own. She began to ask herself whether these gesticulations
might not, perhaps, be a necessary concomitant of the piece
of music that was being played, a piece which, it might be,
was in a different category from all the music that she had
ever heard before; and whether to abstain from them was
not a sign of her own inability to understand the music, and
of discourtesy towards the lady of the house; with the result
that, in order to express by a compromise both of her con-
tradictory inclinations in turn, at one moment she would
merely straighten her shoulder-straps or feel in her golden
hair for the little balls of coral or of pink enamel, frosted
with tiny diamonds, which formed its simple but effective
ornament, studying, with a cold interest, her impassioned
neighbour, while at another she would beat time for a few
bars with her fan, but, so as not to forfeit her independence,
she would beat a different time from the pianist’s. When he
had finished the Liszt Intermezzo and had begun a Prelude
by Chopin, Mme. de Cambremer turned to Mme. de Fran-
quetot with a tender smile, full of intimate reminiscence,
as well as of satisfaction (that of a competent judge) with

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