Marcel Proust: A Biography

THE STUDENT IN SOCIETY
comparing the what-not on which she kept her Saxe figurines to
an altar: "we live in the century of Laure Hayman, and its
reigning dynasty is Saxe," he said; and afterwards he made Odette
collect Saxe, and say of any object whose appearance she liked:
"How pretty that is, it's just like the flowers on a piece of Saxe."
He was attracted not only by Mme Hayman's beauty but by her
salon, which was full of dukes, club-men, writers and future
academicians. One of these was Paul Bourget, who had described
her in his short story Gladys Harvey: 'Gladys has something of
the courtesan of the eighteenth century, and not too much of the
ferociously calculating harlot of our brutal and positivist age.' In
December 1888 she had given Proust, who now showed it to the
horrified Jeanne Pouquet, a copy of Gladys Harvey bound in
flower-embroidered silk from one of her petticoats, and inscribed
'You mustn't like everything in Gladys Harvey!'; and then she
wrote of him to Bourget, enclosing the schoolboy's enthusiastic
letter of thanks. 'Judging by his letter, your "little Marcel" must
be simply delightful,' replied Bourget, and continued in the vein
of Bergotte: 'but he must never allow his love ofliterature to die
out. He will cease to like my books because he likes them too
much; but may he never fall out of love with the beauty of art
which he seeks in my unworthy self! And, though this advice
coming via the lips of a Delilah may seem ironic, tell him to work
and develop all that lies hidden in his already so admirable
intelligence.' So Proust, while still a schoolboy, had been intro-
duced by an original of Odette to an original of Bergotte.
Unlike Odette, Mme Hayman seems to have been an intelligent,
sensible, witty and cultured woman. She was never supposed to
have ruined anyone, and her lovers may have felt that she gave
value for money. Her affection for Louis Weil was sincere, and
whereas Odette as mistress of Uncle Adolphe was barred by the
family, Laure Hayman was accepted by the Prousts. She was on
visiting terms with Dr Proust, and would give him news of his
son's activities; so that whenever Dr Adrien said with an air of
impenetrable mystery, "You've >.Jeen seen at ... ", or "They tell
me you have ... ", Proust would know that Mme Hayman had
called. Once, with the best intentions, she succeeded in
thoroughly upsetting both father and son, by warning Dr Proust
of Marcel's extravagance. The young man's allowance could be
nothing like that of a Grand Duke; yet he insisted on loading her