760
LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS
write. ' 'The children, of people who snubbed her will freely
accoi-cl ' Madame ' de Villeparisis in history the social position
ihat 'she wanted in life. They will never have heard of Madame
Leroi.
The rapidly fluctuating nature of society makes it a perfect
theme in a book about time. There
is
no stain so deep that
a little time will not wash it out, no position so assured that
a little ' time will not erode it. Marcel's favorite duchess may
be "the eighteenth Oriane de Guermantes in succession, without
a single mesalliance," but her reputation at the end
is
that
of adeclassee who hobnobs with actresses, while the niece of
lupien, the tailor, adopted by Charlus, becomes first Mlle.
d'Oleron and later Marquise de Cambremer. Would anyone
anticipate that Odette, a prostitute married to a friend of the
Prince of Wales and the Comte de Paris, would have to await
tne death of her husband to be accepted by the smart set which
dropped him for marrying her? Who but Proust would explain
tha:t'the Baron de Charlus's reputation for homosexuality
in
Madame Verdurin's circle, however abundantly merited by
his
private life,
is
still undeserved because they have confused
him
With another Monsieur de Charlus, whose wide reputation for
the
same' vice
is
unfounded? Or that Swann, who
disdained
to
boast to Marcel's family of his brilliant position at the very
summit of society, should in later years become noticeably
vUlgar in dropping the names of minor bureaucrats whom he
has induced to calIon his wife? Or that Madame Verdurin who
turns all her hatred on Swann for refusing to join in her de–
nundation of the Duchesse de la Tremouille, whom she does
riot even know, should later occupy, as Princesse de Guer–
mantes, the first position in the world she has once affected
to despise? Society is not aware of changing its standards, for
it
haS ·no memory except for its own acts of condemnation, and
for:these only so far as the individual condemned
is
concerned.
Swann can never be forgiven for marrying Odette, but '
his
daughter, who was not even born in wedlock, can become
a
