r some past
existence in the ancient history of France, noble and little understood,
just as there is in those manufacturing towns where old mansions still
testify to their former courtly days, and chemical workers toil among
delicately sculptured scenes of the Miracle of Theophilus or the Quatre
Fils Aymon.

In this particular instance, the article of her code which made it
highly improbable that--barring an outbreak of fire--Francoise would
go down and disturb Mamma when M. Swann was there for so unimportant a
person as myself was one embodying the respect she shewed not only for
the family (as for the dead, for the clergy, or for royalty), but also
for the stranger within our gates; a respect which I should perhaps have
found touching in a book, but which never failed to irritate me on her
lips, because of the solemn and gentle tones in which she would utter
it, and which irritated me more than usual this evening when the sacred
character in which she invested the dinner-party might have the effect
of making her decline to disturb its ceremonial. But to give myself one
chance of success I lied without hesitation, telling her that it was not
in the least myself who had wanted to write to Mamma, but Mamma who,
on saying good night to me, had begged me not to forget to send her
an answer about something she had asked me to find, and that she would
certainly be very angry if this note were not taken to her. I think that
Francoise disbelieved me, for, like those primitive men whose senses
were so much keener than our own, she could immediately detect, by signs
imperceptible by the rest of us, the truth or falsehood of anything that
we might wish to conceal from her. She studied the envelope for five
minutes as though an examination of the paper itself and the look of
my handwriting could enlighten her as to the nature of the contents,
or tell her to which article of her code she ought to refer the matter.
Then she went out with an air of resignation which seemed to imply:
"What a dreadful thing for parents to have a child like this!"

A moment later she returned to say that they were still at the ice stage
and that it was impossible for the butler to deliver the note at once,
in front of everybody; but that when the finger-bowls were put round he
would find a way of slipping it into Mamma's hand. At once my anxiety
subsided; it was now no longer (as it had been a moment ago) until
to-morrow that I had lost my mother, for