Du côté de chez Swann
Esquisse L
(Cahier 29, 77r-78r)
After the month of Mary when the weather was fine my father said: "Do
you want to go back by the Calvary, you're not too tired are you?" We
walked along, skirting the rose perfume of acacias. we heard [page
missing] sometimes we met M. Lignon and his daughter who at that
moment were just leaving their cousin Sazerat's house and getting into a
carriage. Sometimes they took a few paces with us, not getting in until we
reached the corner of rue du Saint-Esprit. On those days when we said we
had met M. Lignon Mama would say: "Were you dressed neatly, did you behave
properly?" as if in the half darkness M. Lignon would still have been able
to find something to find fault with in my clothing, then she added with a
smile that mitigated her expression of affectionate kindness for M. Lignon
who was such a worthy, excellent and delightful man, and a reproach
towards herself for making a joke about him: "You didn't say anything
inappropriate did you?" because that was the habitual expression of this
poor gentleman who was a little bit pompous and exceedingly modest and
austere. "Ah! the things we see these days", he would say in a tone of
solemn melancholy. I met the children of my excellent friends X and I was
saying sadly that those children do not always refrain from inappropriate
language. I couldn't help myself from pointing it out to them." In the
streets of Combray he did not only content himself with taking up the
defense of the younger persons against their elders who struck them but
additionally he would address long sermons to the elder ones who
unfortunately would reply to him with words that were even more
inappropriate than those of the X children. My cousin, who liked Lignon
less than Mama did said: "Ah, you've had the "inappropriate language" stuff.
What is this inappropriate language?" My father listened to these mocking
comments against Lignon with ill-humour.
Created 06.10.19