inherent in her like a mischievous and ineradicable personality;
that the creature who might have been led astray was a woman with frank
eyes, a heart full of pity for the sufferings of others, a docile body
which he had pressed tightly in his arms and explored with his fingers,
a woman of whom he might one day come into absolute possession if he
succeeded in making himself indispensable to her. There she was,
often tired, her face left blank for the nonce by that eager, feverish
preoccupation with the unknown things which made Swann suffer; she would
push back her hair with both hands; her forehead, her whole face would
seem to grow larger; then, suddenly, some ordinary human thought, some
worthy sentiment such as is to be found in all creatures when, in a
moment of rest or meditation, they are free to express themselves, would
flash out from her eyes like a ray of gold. And immediately the whole of
her face would light up like a grey landscape, swathed in clouds which,
suddenly, are swept away and the dull scene transfigured, at the moment
of the sun's setting. The life which occupied Odette at such times, even
the future which she seemed to be dreamily regarding, Swann could have
shared with her. No evil disturbance seemed to have left any effect on
them. Rare as they became, those moments did not occur in vain. By the
process of memory, Swann joined the fragments together, abolished the
intervals between them, cast, as in molten gold, the image of an Odette
compact of kindness and tranquillity, for whom he was to make, later on
(as we shall see in the second part of this story) sacrifices which the
other Odette would never have won from him. But how rare those moments
were, and how seldom he now saw her! Even in regard to their evening
meetings, she would never tell him until the last minute whether she
would be able to see him, for, reckoning on his being always free, she
wished first to be certain that no one else would offer to come to her.
She would plead that she was obliged to wait for an answer which was of
the very greatest importance, and if, even after she had made Swann
come to her house, any of her friends asked her, half-way through the
evening, to join them at some theatre, or at supper afterwards, she
would jump for joy and dress herself with all speed. As her toilet
progressed, every movement that she made brought Swann nearer to the
moment when he would have to part from her, when she would fly off wit