THE DREYFUS CASE 243that young Chefdebien was 'on the lake'; and after her departure
Proust's letters to her are full of malicious allusions to those
equivalents at Evian of the Blochs at Balbec, the Oulifs, Weis-
weillers and Biedermanns. He was all the more offended when he
was himself confused with these, as when Chevilly's father
remarked: "I suppose there are a lot of Jews at the Splendide? You
really ought to stay at Thonon next year, the society's much less
cosmopolitan there!" or M. Galard announced with an air of
accusation: "I do believe you're Monsieur Weil's nephew!"
There was a lift-boy, 'who did me a great many services'; and
there was, above all, a little train.
We have seen little trains in Brittany, and on the way to Mme
Aubernon's Creur Volant near Paris, and shall find another at
Cabourg. But the real 'little train' of his novel, as Proust explained
long afterwards to Maugny's wife, was the one which crawled
from Geneva to Thonon and Evian and back again, stopping at
evety village or group of villas, and even sometimes where, as at
Amphion, there was nothing but a chateau. 'It was a nice, patient,
good-tempered little train,' he wrote, 'which used to wait for late-
comers as long as they liked, and even when it had already started
didn't mind stopping again while, puffing as loudly as it did, they
ran for it at full speed. Their full speed, however, was where the
resemblance ceased; for the little train always moved' with
prudent deliberation. At Thonon there was a long wait, while the
passengers shook hands with someone who was seeing his guests
off, or another who'd come to buy newspapers, or a good many
who, I always suspected, came only as an excuse to chat with their
acquaintances. The stop at Thonon station was a form of social
life like any other.'l
Dr and Mme Proust returned to Paris on 9 September, after a
lingering embrace on the hotel. terrace between Marcel and his
mother, which was eyed with impatience by Dr Proust and with
sentimental approval by M. Gougeon, first president of the court
of appeal at Besan~on. He is the original of M. Poncin at Balbec,
who holds the same post at Caen (M. Gougeon himself had
previously served at Rouen), and is addressed as 'Premier' by the
barrister; he took a liking to Proust and on his departure a few
days later gave him a pressing invitation to 'come and see my wife
1 Proust used many of the actual words of this letter in his description of
the little train at Balbec (II, 1110).