Page 567 - swanns-way

Odette had the charm of being natural. She had recounted,
she had acted the little scene with so much simplicity that
Swann, as he gasped for breath, could vividly see it: Odette
yawning, the ‘rock there,’... He could hear her answer—alas,
how lightheartedly—‘I’ve heard that tale before!’ He felt that
she would tell him nothing more that evening, that no fur-
ther revelation was to be expected for the present. He was
silent for a time, then said to her:
‘My poor darling, you must forgive me; I know, I am
hurting you dreadfully, but it’s all over now; I shall never
think of it again.’
But she saw that his eyes remained fixed upon the things
that he did not know, and on that past era of their love, mo-
notonous and soothing in his memory because it was vague,
and now rent, as with a sword-wound, by the news of that
minute on the Island in the Bois, by moonlight, while he
was dining with the Princesse des Laumes. But he had so
far acquired the habit of finding life interesting—of marvel-
ling at the strange discoveries that there were to be made in
it—that even while he was suffering so acutely that he did
not believe it possible to endure such agony for any length
of time, he was saying to himself: ‘Life is indeed astonish-
ing, and holds some fine surprises; it appears that vice is far
more common than one has been led to believe. Here is a
woman in whom I had absolute confidence, who looks so
simple, so honest, who, in any case, even allowing that her
morals are not strict, seemed quite normal and healthy in
her tastes and inclinations. I receive a most improbable ac-
cusation, I question her, and the little that she admits reveals

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