feel that a clever man ought to be unhappy only about such
persons as are worth his while; which is rather like being astonished
that anyone should condescend to die of cholera at the bidding of so
insignificant a creature as the common bacillus.

Swann now wished to go home, but, just as he was making his escape,
General de Froberville caught him and asked for an introduction to Mme.
de Cambremer, and he was obliged to go back into the room to look for
her.

"I say, Swann, I'd rather be married to that little woman than killed by
savages, what do you say?"

The words 'killed by savages' pierced Swann's aching heart; and at once
he felt the need of continuing the conversation. "Ah!" he began, "some
fine lives have been lost in that way... There was, you remember, that
explorer whose remains Dumont d'Urville brought back, La Perouse..."
(and he was at once happy again, as though he had named Odette). "He was
a fine character, and interests me very much, does La Perouse," he ended
sadly.

"Oh, yes, of course, La Perouse," said the General. "It's quite a
well-known name. There's a street called that."

"Do you know anyone in the Rue La Perouse?" asked Swann excitedly.

"Only Mme. de Chanlivault, the sister of that good fellow Chaussepierre.
She gave a most amusing theatre-party the other evening. That's a house
that will be really smart some day, you'll see!"

"Oh, so she lives in the Rue La Perouse. It's attractive; I like that
street; it's so sombre."

"Indeed it isn't. You can't have been in it for a long time; it's not at
all sombre now; they're beginning to build all round there."

When Swann did finally introduce M. de Froberville to the young Mme. de
Cambremer, since it was the first time that she had heard the General's
name, she hastily outlined upon her lips the smile of joy and surprise
with which she would have greeted him if she had never, in the whole
of her life, heard anything else; for, as she did not yet know all the
friends of her new family, whenever anyone was presented to her, she
assumed that he must be one of them, and thinking that she would shew
her tact by appearing to have heard 'such a lot about him' since her
marriage, she would hold out her hand with an air of hesitation which
was meant as a proof at once of the inculcated reserve which she had to
overcome and of the spontaneous friendliness which successfully overcame
it. And so her parents-in-law, whom she still regarded as the mo