As the musicians weren’t yet so much playing the little phrase as prolonging the invocation of a miraculous apparition, Swann, who could no more see that spirit than he could see ultra-violet light, experienced a refreshing metamorphosis, as if a protective goddess was present, a lover’s confidant who, to reach only him in this crowd, had disguised itself as a creature purely sonorous. And as it passed, weightless and soothing as a perfume’s murmur, he scrutinized its message while involuntarily pursing his lips to kiss the harmonious and fleeting phantom.
