Swann's Way

nothing better, but he carried politeness and consideration for others
to so fine a point, always putting himself in their place, that he was
afraid of boring them, or of appearing egotistical, if he carried out,
or even allowed them to suspect what were his own desires. On the day
when my parents had gone to pay him a visit, I had accompanied them,
but they had allowed me to remain outside, and as M. Vinteuil's house,
Montjouvain, stood on a site actually hollowed out from a steep hill
covered with shrubs, among which I took cover, I had found myself on a
level with his drawing-room, upstairs, and only a few feet away from its
window. When a servant came in to tell him that my parents had arrived,
I had seen M. Vinteuil run to the piano and lay out a sheet of music
so as to catch the eye. But as soon as they entered the room he had
snatched it away and hidden it in a corner. He was afraid, no doubt, of
letting them suppose that he was glad to see them only because it gave
him a chance of playing them some of his compositions. And every time
that my mother, in the course of her visit, had returned to the subject
of his playing, he had hurriedly protested: "I cannot think who put that