Chapter 2
THE GARDEN OF ILLIERSM
ARCEL'S grandfather at Illiers had died long ago, on ::t
October 1855, when the future Dr Proust was still a young
medical student in Paris: Louis Proust was never to know that
his son would be successful and famous, any more than Dr
Proust in his turn could know that his own beloved but dis-
appointing child would be anything more than an idler in society
and a dilettante in literature. Virginie Proust, the grandmother,
kept the family grocer's shop at II Place du Marche, for eleven
years more, until her son passed his agregation in 1866 and
became able to help in her support with his earnings. Then she
retired to live in an apartment over a shop, only a few doors
away, at No.6; and there, in her front room with its esparto
carpet and calico curtains, she sat by the window looking at the
market-place below and the church opposite-against its walls at
that time were the shops of the local hatter, the barber and the
clockmaker-for twenty-three years. The church clock threw its
hours and quarters down to the fortunate widow, as she watched
the cobbled square which to the natives ofIlliers is the hub of the
universe. Her time was lost, so easily it passed, but never wasted.
Even on ordinary days there was always someone passing, and on
Friday market-day and Sunday mass-day everybody was passing;
Friday and Sunday were never far away, and Easter or high
summer, when her son brought his family from Paris, always
came soon.
Her daughter Elisabeth had married in May 1847 a prosperous
tradesman of Illiers, Jules Amiot. He kept a draper's shop at No.
14 in the market-place, and his dwelling-house was at NO.4 in
the Rue du Saint-Esprit, wh;ch runs parallel with the market-
place a few yards to the south-west, and is now called, after
Proust's father, Rue du Docteur Proust. It was with Marcel's
Aunt and Uncle Amiot that the family stayed when they visited
Illiers.
They took the train from Paris via Chartres on the day before