Swann’s comment, “three Wednesdays running you’ve played me false.” “That’s quite true, Odette; it’s simply ages, it’s an eternity since I saw you last. You see, I plead guilty; but I must tell you,” she went on with a vague suggestion of outraged modesty, for although a doctor’s wife she would never have dared to speak without periphrasis of rheumatism or of a chill on the kidneys, “that I have had a lot of little troubles. As we all have, I dare say. And besides that I’ve had a crisis among my masculine domestics. I’m sure, I’m no more imbued with a sense of my own authority than most ladies; still I’ve been obliged, just to make an example you know, to give my Vatel notice; I believe he was looking out anyhow for a more remunerative place. But his departure nearly brought about the resignation of my entire ministry. My own maid refused to stay in the house a moment longer; oh, we have had some Homeric scenes. However I held fast to the reins through thick and thin; the whole affair’s been a perfect lesson, which won’t be lost on me, I can tell you. I’m afraid I’m boring you with all these stories about servants, but you know as well as I do what a business it is when one is obliged to set about rearranging one’s household.