Page 581 - swanns-way

But Machard! Just listen to this now, the husband of my
friend, I am on my way to see at this very moment (which
has given me the very great pleasure of your company), has
promised her that, if he is elected to the Academy (he is one
of the Doctor’s colleagues), he will get Machard to paint her
portrait. So she’s got something to look forward to! I have
another friend who insists that she’d rather have Leloir. I’m
only a wretched Philistine, and I’ve no doubt Leloir has per-
haps more knowledge of painting even than Machard. But
I do think that the most important thing about a portrait,
especially when it’s going to cost ten thousand francs, is that
it should be like, and a pleasant likeness, if you know what
I mean.’
Having exhausted this topic, to which she had been in-
spired by the loftiness of her plume, the monogram on her
card-case, the little number inked inside each of her gloves
by the cleaner, and the difficulty of speaking to Swann about
the Verdurins, Mme. Cottard, seeing that they had still a
long way to go before they would reach the corner of the
Rue Bonaparte, where the conductor was to set her down,
listened to the promptings of her heart, which counselled
other words than these.
‘Your ears must have been burning,’ she ventured, ‘while
we were on the yacht with Mme. Verdurin. We were talking
about you all the time.’
Swann was genuinely astonished, for he supposed that
his name was never uttered in the Verdurins’ presence.
‘You see,’ Mme. Cottard went on, ‘Mme. de Crécy was
there; need I say more? When Odette is anywhere it’s never

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