THE STUDENT IN SOCIETY 99ground, iike the pianist's aunt or Princesse Sherbatoff at Mme
Verdurin's, and were known as 'my sacred monsters'. One of the
monsters was once reproached for frivolity by her son, who felt
that her name appeared far too frequently in the society columns
of the newspapers. "You're quite right, my dear," she said, "to-
morrow I'll give up going to funerals."
Mme Aubernon was a fat, lively little woman, with dimpled
arms, and wore loud beribboned dresses and shoes with pom-
poms. "She looked like Queen Pomare on the lavatory seat,"
Montesquiou used to say. She was sixty-seven in 1892, and was
not unaware that her beauty had vanished: "I realised it," she
said, "when men stopped raving about my face and only told me
how intelligent I was." Her evening receptions on Wednesdays
(Mme Verdurin's day) and Saturdays were preceded by a dinner
for twelve persons, neither more nor less, for which the subject of
conversation was announced in advance. The guests did not
always take the custom as seriously as she wished. "What is your
opini on of adultery?" she asked Mme Straus one week, when that
happened to be the theme, and Mme Straus replied: "I'm so sorry,
I prepared incest by mistake." Labiche, when asked what he
thought of Shakespeare, enquired: "Why, is he marrying some-
one we know?" And d' Annunzio, when asked to talk about love,
was even less forthcoming: "Read my books, madam," he said,
"and let me get on with my food." Thinking a change of subject
might thaw her guest, Mme Aubernon began to ask after his
distinguished contemporaries. "Tell me about Fogazzaro," she
implored. "Fogazzaro?" echoed the poet, "he's at Vicenza"; and
the meal finished in frozen silence. When Mme Laure Baigneres
was asked the same question: "What do you think about love?"
she could only reply, "I make it, often, but I never, never talk
about it."! If conversation at the other end of the table became
general, Mme Aubernon would ring her famous little be1l^2 to
secure attention for the speaker of the moment. Once, on his very
first visit, Labiche was heard to murmur "I ... I ... " The Widow
jingled with her bell and shouted: "Monsieur Labiche, you will
have your turn in a minute." The speaker finished, and she said
1 A remark attributed to Mrne Leroi in Le Cote de Guermantes (II, 195).
2 It was of silver, the handle was a figure of St Louis, and on the bell was
engraved the maxim attributed to that king by Joinville: 'If you have any-
thing worth saying, let everyone hear it; if not, be silent,'