Perhaps because he had always regretted, in his heart, that he had confined his attention to the social side of life, had talked, always, rather than acted, he felt that he might find a sort of indulgence bestowed upon him by those great artists, in his perception of the fact that they also had regarded with pleasure and had admitted into the canon of their works such types of physiognomy as give those works the strongest possible certificate of reality and trueness to life; a modern, almost a topical savour;
Beharbada gogoan beti gordea zuelako halako alhadura bat, bere bizitza mundu-harremanetara, kalaka hutsetara, mugatu izanaren deitorea, Swanni iruditzen zitzaion ezen artista handiek nolabaiteko barkamen bihozbera ere eskaintzen ziotela, haiek ere gogotik saiatuak zirelako horrelakoxe aurpegiak beren obretarako aintzakotzat hartzen, aurpegiok emango ziotelakoan obrari benetakotasun eta bizitasunaren ziurtagiria, zapore modernoa;