Status Updates From Die Welt der Guermantes

The creatures who have played an important part in one's life rarely drop out of it for good, just like that. They come back into it from time to time (so much so that people start believing in the renewal of former love) before leaving it forever.

If, in the salon of Mme de Villeparisis, as in the Combray church on the day of Mlle Percepied's wedding, had difficulty rediscovering in the lovely, all-too-human face of Mme de Guermantes the enigma of her name, I thought at least that, when she spoke, her conversation would be profound and mysterious, strange as a medieval tapestry or a Gothic window.