Page 524 - swanns-way

like me,’ he went on, wiping his monocle and replacing it,
as though he were laying a fresh dressing on the raw wound
underneath, while the Princess instinctively looked away,
‘that Empire nobility, well, of course, it’s not the same thing,
but, after all, taking it as it is, it’s very fine of its kind; they
were people who really did fight like heroes.’
‘But I have the deepest respect for heroes,’ the Princess
assented, though with a faint trace of irony. ‘If I don’t go
with Basin to see this Princesse d’Iéna, it isn’t for that, at all;
it’s simply because I don’t know them. Basin knows them;
he worships them. Oh, no, it’s not what you think; he’s not
in love with her. I’ve nothing to set my face against! Besides,
what good has it ever done when I have set my face against
them?’ she queried sadly, for the whole world knew that,
ever since the day upon which the Prince des Laumes had
married his fascinating cousin, he had been consistently
unfaithful to her. ‘Anyhow, it isn’t that at all. They’re people
he has known for ever so long, they do him very well, and
that suits me down to the ground. But I must tell you what
he’s told me about their house; it’s quite enough. Can you
imagine it, all their furniture is ‘Empire’!’
‘But, my dear Princess, that’s only natural; it belonged to
their grandparents.’
‘I don’t quite say it didn’t, but that doesn’t make it any less
ugly. I quite understand that people can’t always have nice
things, but at least they needn’t have things that are merely
grotesque. What do you say? I can think of nothing more
devastating, more utterly smug than that hideous style—
cabinets covered all over with swans’ heads, like bath-taps!’

524 Swann’s Way