Free The Lemoine Affair by Marcel Proust Page A

language so peculiar
     to him that I have described, at which everyone continually marveled.
    But every coin has its other side. This man of unrivalled qualities, in whom the brilliant
     and the profound were equally prominent, this man, who could have been called delightful,
     who could be listened to for hours to the amusement both of others and of himself,
     since he laughed loudly at what he said as if he were both author and performer, to
     their benefit, this man had one vice: he was just as thirsty for enemies as he was
     for friends. Insatiable for the latter, he was relentless for the former, if one can
     put it that way, since after a few years had gone by, it was the same ones in whom
     he had lost all interest. He always needed someone to hate, to pursue, to persecute
     on the pretext of the most trifling remark—thus he was the terror of Versailles, since
     he did not in the least restrain his voice, which he employed to hurl the most grievous,
     biting, unjust remarks at whoever was not to his liking, as when he very clearly proclaimed
     about Diane de Peydan de Brou, esteemed widow of the Marquis de Saint-Paul, that it
     was just as unfortunate for paganism as it was for Catholicism that she was named
     after both Diana and Saint Paul. His choice of words always took people by surprise
     and made them tremble.Having spent his youth among the highest society, and his maturity among the poets,
     and having liked both circles equally, he feared no one and lived in a solitude that
     he made ever more austere by each former friend that he chased away. He was one of
     the close friends of Mme Straus, daughter and widow respectively of the famous musicians
     Halévy and Bizet, wife of Emile Straus, lawyer for a major charity; her admirable
     retorts are remembered by everyone. Her face had kept all its charm and would have
     been enough even without her intellect to attract all those who crowded round her.
     She is the one who, once in the Chapel of Versailles where she had her pew, when M.
     de Noyon whose language was always so affected and unnatural asked her if the music
     they were listening to didn’t strike her as octagonal, replied, “My dear sir, I was
     just about to say the same thing!”—as if answering someone who had uttered in front
     of everyone something that came naturally to mind.
    One could fill a whole book if one recounted all that has been said by her and that
     should not be forgotten. Her health had always been delicate. She had taken advantage
     of this early on to dispense with the Marlys and the Meudons, so went to pay court
     to the King only very rarely, whereupon she was always received alone and with great
     consideration. People were astonished by the fruits and mineral waters she made use
     of all the time, without any liqueurs, or chocolate, and which had drowned her stomach;
     Fagon had not wanted to acknowledge this since his reputation wasalready dwindling. He called “charlatans” all those who prescribe remedies or who
     had not been received into the Faculty of Medecine; because of such notions he drove
     away a Swiss who could have cured her. In the end, as her stomach had lost the habit
     for strong food, and her body for sleep and long walks, she turned this fatigue into
     a distinction. Mme the Duchesse de Bourgogne came to see her and did not want to be
     shown beyond the first room. She received duchesses sitting down, who came to visit
     her just the same, since she was such a delight to listen to. Montesquiou never failed
     to visit her; he was also highly regarded by Mme Standish, his cousin, who came to
     that parvulo at Saint-Cloud, being the friend of longest standing of any to be admitted,
     and the one closest to the Queen of England, and most cherished by her; all the women
     there did not give way to her as should have been the case but was not, thanks to
     the incredible ignorance of M. the Duc d’Orléans, who thought little of her since
     her name was