ur
books in a lifetime give us anything that is of real importance. Suppose
that, every morning, when we tore the wrapper off our paper with fevered
hands, a transmutation were to take place, and we were to find inside
it--oh! I don't know; shall we say Pascal's _Pensees_?" He articulated
the title with an ironic emphasis so as not to appear pedantic. "And
then, in the gilt and tooled volumes which we open once in ten years,"
he went on, shewing that contempt for the things of this world which
some men of the world like to affect, "we should read that the Queen of
the Hellenes had arrived at Cannes, or that the Princesse de Leon had
given a fancy dress ball. In that way we should arrive at the right
proportion between 'information' and 'publicity.'" But at once
regretting that he had allowed himself to speak, even in jest, of
serious matters, he added ironically: "We are having a most entertaining
conversation; I cannot think why we climb to these lofty summits," and
then, turning to my grandfather: "Well, Saint-Simon tells how Maulevrier
had had the audacity to offer his hand to his sons. You remember how he
says of Maulevrier, 'Never did I find in that coarse bottle anything but
ill-humour, boorishness, and folly.'"

"Coarse or not, I know bottles in which there is something very
different!" said Flora briskly, feeling bound to thank Swann as well as
her sister, since the present of Asti had been addressed to them both.
Celine began to laugh.

Swann was puzzled, but went on: "'I cannot say whether it was his
ignorance or a trap,' writes Saint-Simon; 'he wished to give his hand to
my children. I noticed it in time to prevent him.'"

My grandfather was already in ecstasies over "ignorance or a trap,"
but Miss Celine--the name of Saint-Simon, a 'man of letters,' having
arrested the complete paralysis of her sense of hearing--had grown
angry.

"What! You admire that, do you? Well, it is clever enough! But what is
the point of it? Does he mean that one man isn't as good as another?
What difference can it make whether he is a duke or a groom so long
as he is intelligent and good? He had a fine way of bringing up his
children, your Saint-Simon, if he didn't teach them to shake hands with
all honest men. Really and truly, it's abominable. And you dare to quote
it!"

And my grandfather, utterly depressed, realising how futile it would be
for him, against this opposition, to attempt to get Swann to tell him
the stories w