iled to identify, the painter, Odette,
Napoleon III and my grandfather, along a path which followed the line
of the coast, and overhung the sea, now at a great height, now by a few
feet only, so that they were continually going up and down; those of the
party who had reached the downward slope were no longer visible to those
who were still climbing; what little daylight yet remained was failing,
and it seemed as though a black night was immediately to fall on them.
Now and then the waves dashed against the cliff, and Swann could feel on
his cheek a shower of freezing spray. Odette told him to wipe this off,
but he could not, and felt confused and helpless in her company, as well
as because he was in his nightshirt. He hoped that, in the darkness,
this might pass unnoticed; Mme. Verdurin, however, fixed her astonished
gaze upon him for an endless moment, in which he saw her face change
its shape, her nose grow longer, while beneath it there sprouted a heavy
moustache. He turned away to examine Odette; her cheeks were pale, with
little fiery spots, her features drawn and ringed with shadows; but she
looked back at him with eyes welling with affection, ready to detach
themselves like tears and to fall upon his face, and he felt that he
loved her so much that he would have liked to carry her off with him
at once. Suddenly Odette turned her wrist, glanced at a tiny watch,
and said: "I must go." She took leave of everyone, in the same formal
manner, without taking Swann aside, without telling him where they were
to meet that evening, or next day. He dared not ask, he would have liked
to follow her, he was obliged, without turning back in her direction,
to answer with a smile some question by Mme. Verdurin; but his heart was
frantically beating, he felt that he now hated Odette, he would gladly
have crushed those eyes which, a moment ago, he had loved so dearly,
have torn the blood into those lifeless cheeks. He continued to climb
with Mme. Verdurin, that is to say that each step took him farther from
Odette, who was going downhill, and in the other direction. A second
passed and it was many hours since she had left him. The painter
remarked to Swann that Napoleon III had eclipsed himself immediately
after Odette. "They had obviously arranged it between them," he added;
"they must have agreed to meet at the foot of the cliff, but they
wouldn't say good-bye together; it might have looked odd. She is his
mistress." The strange you