He was, as a matter of fact, convinced that she had not; the anonymous letter had put the idea into his mind, but in a purely mechanical way; it had been received there with no credulity, but it had, for all that, remained there, and Swann, wishing to be rid of the burden⁠—a dead weight, but none the less disturbing⁠—of this suspicion, hoped that Odette would now extirpate it forever.