Chapter II
DESCENT INTO THE CITIES OF THE PLAIND
URING the summer of 18 94, the period of his ascent to the
heights of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, Proust continued
simultaneously his descent towards Sod om. His uneasy friendship
with Montesquiou, however, ceased to be a preponderant motive
force, and the Count's honeymoon with Delafosse seemed a
model to be avoided. Only politeness was maintained. In July
he tried, unsuccessfully, to arrange a 'musical dinner' for the
happy couple at the fashionable restaurant of Armenonville in the
Bois de Boulogne. No doubt all three had been there before; for
it was at Armenonville that the Verdurin's pianist used to play
the Vinteuil Sonata to Odette and the 'faithful', so that ever after-
wards, when Swann heard the 'little phrase', he could see 'the
moonlight preventing the leaves from moving', and hear someone
murmuring, "You can almost see to read the newspaperl"l
Proust learned, too late; that Delafosse had left for London,
where he gave a piano-recital on 12 July, while Montesquiou had
been ill with laryngitis ('I should so have loved to bring you hot
drinks and smoothe your pillow!'). He would be going to Saint-
Moritz again in August---could Marcel come too? But Proust had
more attractive plans.
Before these plans are revealed, a strange meeting in the
previous spring must be mentioned. During the April of 1894,
Oscar Wilde paid his last visit to Paris before his self-sought
doom of the following year. It was the period of his most trium-. phant pride, when he felt himself to be, as he said, 'the King of
Life', and only disaster could offer him a new experience. His
bloated, gloriously insolent features were to be seen at Mme
Straus's; and Proust dined with him one evening at Mme Arman
de Caillavet's, where the twO men eyed one another, as Fernand
Gregh noticed, 'with a complex curiosity'. "You know," said
Mme Arman afterwards, "Monsieur Wilde looks like a cross
between the Apollo Belvedere and Albert Wolff." Everyone knew
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