MARCEL PROUSTand Taine, and with Taine she had quarrelled in 1887, after his
series of hostile articles on her uncle, leaving on him the famous
visiting-card marked P.P.c.^1 Her house was at 20 Rue de Berri,
and her guests, with a nucleus of old Bonapartists such as Counts
Benedetti and Primoli, now included the Straus's, Charles Haas,
Ephrussi, Dr Pozzi, Ganderax, Bourget and Porto-Riche. Count
Benedetti had been the French ambassador at Berlin in 1870, a
post which he shared with M. de N orpois.^2 Count Joseph Primoli,
a nephew of the Princess, was a bald-headed gentleman with a
white beard, who looked rather like God the Father. He was
despised for collecting postage-stamps, until people heard that he
had sold his collection for a million francs; and he was addicted
to the tiresome form of humour which consists in asking awkward
questions with a straight face, and inviting deadly enemies to
dinner on the same evening. His nickname was Gege, which may
be compared with the Babals, Grigris and Mamas of the Guer-
mantes set. There was also a sprinkling of society from the
Faubourg-the Gramonts, Rohans, Comte Louis de Turenne, a
few others; but the majority of the Princess's titled guests were of
the Napoleonic creation, with names mostly taken from battles-
like the fictitious Ienas, whom Charlus called 'those people who
are named after a bridge'3-on whom the Faubourg tended to
look down: the Wagrams, Albuferas, Elchingens, Esslings,
Murats.
The Princess was a portly little lady, with a startling resem-
blance to her uncle Napoleon. "Ifit weren't for him, I'd be selling
oranges in the streets of Ajaccio," she would say in the gruff,
plebeian, soldierly voice of the Bonapartes. She sat, wearing a
string of black pearls, in a humble armchair to which her presence
somehow gave the air of a throne. She liked to feel that she was no
stickler for etiquette, and would allow the ladies only to begin the
movement of a curtsey before pulling them up by main force for
an embrace; while the gentlemen, once they had shown their
intention of kissing her hand, would receive an informal hand-
1 The newspapers got hold of the story, and various rude interpretations
of the initials (which of course stand for 'Pour prendre conge') were suggested:
among the more innocent was 'Princesse pas contente'. Taine tried to get
sympathy from Renan, who only remarked: "My Vie de Jesus put me in bad
odour with a much greater lady 1"
2 III,637-9
3 II, 564. Cf. I, 338