n
whom the old friends of the family, like my relatives, shut their eyes
all the more good-naturedly that Swann himself, after he was left an
orphan, still came most faithfully to see us; but we would have been
ready to wager that the people outside our acquaintance whom Swann knew
were of the sort to whom he would not have dared to raise his hat, had
he met them while he was walking with ourselves. Had there been such a
thing as a determination to apply to Swann a social coefficient peculiar
to himself, as distinct from all the other sons of other stockbrokers in
his father's position, his coefficient would have been rather lower than
theirs, because, leading a very simple life, and having always had
a craze for 'antiques' and pictures, he now lived and piled up his
collections in an old house which my grandmother longed to visit,
but which stood on the Quai d'Orleans, a neighbourhood in which my
great-aunt thought it most degrading to be quartered. "Are you really
a connoisseur, now?" she would say to him; "I ask for your own sake, as
you are likely to have 'fakes' palmed off on you by the dealers," for
she did not, in fact, endow him with any critical faculty, and had no
great opinion of the intelligence of a man who, in conversation, would
avoid serious topics and shewed a very dull preciseness, not only when
he gave us kitchen recipes, going into the most minute details, but
even when my grandmother's sisters were talking to him about art. When
challenged by them to give an opinion, or to express his admiration for
some picture, he would remain almost impolitely silent, and would then
make amends by furnishing (if he could) some fact or other about the
gallery in which the picture was hung, or the date at which it had been
painted. But as a rule he would content himself with trying to amuse
us by telling us the story of his latest adventure--and he would have
a fresh story for us on every occasion--with some one whom we ourselves
knew, such as the Combray chemist, or our cook, or our coachman. These
stories certainly used to make my great-aunt laugh, but she could
never tell whether that was on account of the absurd parts which Swann
invariably made himself play in the adventures, or of the wit that he
shewed in telling us of them. "It is easy to see that you are a regular
'character,' M. Swann!"

As she was the only member of our family who could be described as a
trifle 'common,' she would always take care to rem