MARCEL PROUSTflabby hand. A year later Antoine instructed him in the etiquette
of shaking hands: "You must grip powerfully, Marcel, like this,"
he explained; but "IfI followed your example, people would take
me for an invert," Marcel objected.
In 1900 Antoine Bibesco was a virilely handsome young man
of twenry-three, with stem, chiselled features, implacable eyes,
and a slightly cruel twist in his thin lips. Perhaps his cruelry was
only apparent, or at worst, not merely gratuitous: he was a loyal
friend to the end of Proust's life; but he was inclined to be teasing
and revengeful, and when exasperated by Proust's excessive
demands or susceptibility he would wait his time and retaliate
without scruple. He was studying in Paris for the Roumanian
diplomatic service, but soon after their meeting he returned to
Roumania for his year's military service.
In the autumn of 1901 Antoine Bibesco returned to Paris, and
immediately introduced Proust to his friend Comte Bertrand de
Salignac-Fenelon-'the dearest of my friends,' says the Narrator,
calling him by name, 'the best, bravest and most intelligent of
men, Bertrand de Fenelon, whom no one .who ever knew him
can forget'.1 Fenelon, now aged twenry-three, was descended
from a brother of the famous bishop of Cambrai, the opponent of
Bossuet and author of TeIemaque under Louis XIV. He shared
the blue eyes, the easy, aristocratic manner, the swift movements,
and, alas, thirteen years later, the death in battle of the Marquis
Robert de Saint-Loup. He was a Dreyfusard, an anti-clerical and
an intellectual. 'Bertrand de Fenelon left a glittering wake behind
him, and a great emptiness in the minds and hearts of his friends,'
wrote Georges de Lauris; 'we have not forgotten the amused and
affectionate irony of his gaze, the dauntless impetuosiry which
we loved, and which he took with him into the battlefield. We
expected much of him, and were inclined to be afraid of his
verdicts, for he had no use for friendship without plain-speaking.
After long absences how enchanting were his rel;.;rns, his lively
eyes, and open arms, and flying coat-tails, in the sunlight
before the war!'" Soon their group was joined by Comte
1 II, 771
, It is possible (though neither source is quite reliable) that Proust met
Fenelon in 1899: Albert Flament mentions him among the habitues of the
Cafe Weber in that year, while F ernand Vanderem names him with Proust
as frequenting the salon of Mme Aubernon, who died in 1899. Similarly,