Our dear friend Swann meets Mme Cottard on an omnibus, and she tells him all about Odette and the boating trip with the Verdurins. So engaged in conversation is she, that she almost misses her stop. But she never loses her sense of form, and even though Swann has long been out of favour with the little gang, she doesn't hesitate to offer him her hand in parting.
And Mme. Cottard withdrew from her muff, to offer it to Swann, a white-gloved hand from which there floated, with a transier-ticket, an atmosphere of fashionable life that pervaded the omnibus, blended with the harsher fragrance of newly cleaned kid. And Swann felt himself overflowing with gratitude to her, as well as to Mme. Verdurin (and almost to Odette, for the feeling that he now entertained for her was no longer tinged with pain, was scarcely even to be described, now, as love), while from the platform of the omnibus he followed her with loving eyes, as she gallantly threaded her way along the Rue Bonaparte, her plume erect, her skirt held up in one hand, while in the other she clasped her umbrella and her card-case, so that its monogram could be seen, her muff dancing in the air before her as she went.
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