I used often to recall to myself when, many years later, I began to take an interest in his character because of the similarities which, in wholly different respects, it offered to my own, how, when he used to write to my grandfather (though not at the time we are now considering, for it was about the date of my own birth that Swann's great 'affair' began, and made a long interruption in his amatory practices) the latter, recognising his friend's handwriting on the envelope, would exclaim:
Hainbat urte geroago, haren izaerak bestelako zenbait gauzatan nirearekin antza izan zezakeelakoan-edo Swannen aiurriaz interesatzen hasi nintzenean, askotan entzun nien etxekoei kontatzen nola, aitonari idazten zionean (aitona izatekoa, berez, oraindik, Swannen gurekiko harreman estua nire jaiotzaren garai ingurukoa baita, eta eten ere nire jaiotzak luzaroan etena), honek, aitonak, gutun-azalean bere lagunaren idazkerari errepararaturik, nola egiten zuen deiadar: