Our young hero realizes his dream of seeing the celebrated Duchesse de Guermantes with his own eyes while she is visiting Combray for a family wedding. She resides in Paris at the center of society.
"...while Mme Guermantes sat in the chapel above the tombs of her dead ancestors...her gaze...rested momentarily upon myself, like a ray of sunlight straying down the nave..."
"I felt it important that she should not leave the church before I had been able to look at her for long enough, reminding myself that for years past I had regarded the sight of her as a thing eminently to be desired."
"I cried out within myself: 'How lovely she is! What true nobility! It is indeed a proud Guermantes, the descendant of Geneviéve de Brabant, that I have before me!'"
"I fancied that I had found favor in her eyes, that she would continue to think of me after she had left the church...And at once I fell in love with her..."
The Duchesse and our young hero will in the future become acquainted, and their story lasts through all six volumes.
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