Page 528 - swanns-way

the Princess have known what was going to be on my pro-
gramme? The musicians didn’t tell me, even.’
Swann, who was accustomed, when he was with a wom-
an whom he had kept up the habit of addressing in terms
of gallantry, to pay her delicate compliments which most
other people would not and need not understand, did not
condescend to explain to Mme. de Saint-Euverte that he
had been speaking metaphorically. As for the Princess, she
was in fits of laughter, both because Swann’s wit was highly
appreciated by her set, and because she could never hear a
compliment addressed to herself without finding it exqui-
sitely subtle and irresistibly amusing.
‘Indeed! I’m delighted, Charles, if my little hips and haws
meet with your approval. But tell me, why did you bow to
that Cambremer person, are you also her neighbour in the
country?’
Mme. de Saint-Euverte, seeing that the Princess seemed
quite happy talking to Swann, had drifted away.
‘But you are, yourself, Princess!’
‘I! Why, they must have ‘countries’ everywhere, those
creatures! Don’t I wish I had!’
‘No, not the Cambremers; her own people. She was a
Legrandin, and used to come to Combray. I don’t know
whether you are aware that you are Comtesse de Combray,
and that the Chapter owes you a due.’
‘I don’t know what the Chapter owes me, but I do know
that I’m ‘touched’ for a hundred francs, every year, by the
Curé, which is a due that I could very well do without. But
surely these Cambremers have rather a startling name. It

528 Swann’s Way