Page 613 - swanns-way

or fulfil, and thereby of the one paramount immediate plea-
sure, the pleasure of loving and of being loved; more soft,
more warm upon tie stone than even moss is; alive, a ray of
sunshine sufficing for its birth, and for the birth of joy, even
in the heart of winter.
And on those days when all other vegetation had disap-
peared, when the fine jerkins of green leather which covered
the trunks of the old trees were hidden beneath the snow;
after the snow had ceased to fall, but when the sky was still
too much overcast for me to hope that Gilberte would ven-
ture out, then suddenly—inspiring my mother to say: ‘Look,
it’s quite fine now; I think you might perhaps try going to
the Champs-Elysées after all.’—On the mantle of snow that
swathed the balcony, the sun had appeared and was stitch-
ing seams of gold, with embroidered patches of dark shadow.
That day we found no one there, or else a solitary girl, on the
point of departure, who assured me that Gilberte was not
coming. The chairs, deserted by the imposing but uninspir-
ing company of governesses, stood empty. Only, near the
grass, was sitting a lady of uncertain age who came in all
weathers, dressed always in an identical style, splendid and
sombre, to make whose acquaintance I would have, at that
period, sacrificed, had it lain in my power, all the greatest
opportunities in my life to come. For Gilberte went up every
day to speak to her; she used to ask Gilberte for news of her
‘dearest mother’ and it struck me that, if I had known her,
I should have been for Gilberte some one wholly different,
some one who knew people in her parents’ world. While her
grandchildren played together at a little distance, she would

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