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fat, vulgar lady he had seen alone on the train: 393–94. Her pronunciation: 394–96. Her obligingness: 397–98. Her concern about the effect of Dechambre’s death on Mme Verdurin: 400, 403–4. Mme Verdurin uses her as a screen to hide her mock laughter: 482. Rebuffed by Cottard in the little train: 598. Her proclaimed anti-snobbery the result of wounded snobbery; quarrels with M: 602–6. Appreciates a Cottard pun: 613. Her death announced by Sanierte: V 302. Mme Verdurin’s indifference to the event: 317–20. Referred to in the Goncourt pastiche as having perhaps been the murderer of the Archduke Rudolf: VI 87.

SIDONIA, Duke of. Spanish grandee and formidable talker; competes with Charlus at the Princesse de Guermantes’s: IV 52–53.

SILISTRIE, Princesse de. Calls on the Guermantes to discuss Amanien d’Osmond’s illness: III 788. Seeks to marry her son to Gilberte: V 897–98.

SIMONET. See Albertine.

SKI, diminutive of Viradobetski. Polish sculptor, friend of the Verdurins. In the little train: IV 360–61; his character and appearance; superficially gifted in all the arts; his affectations: 367–69. His opinion of Mme de Cambremer: 386–87. Warns Mme Verdurin against Charlus: 408–10. Teases Brichot about his “eye for the ladies”: 434–36. Reveals Charlus’s vice to Cottard: 450–51. His affected flight of fancy about the colour of food: 459–60. Mistaken about Charlus’s background: 481–84. His witticisms at the Baron’s expense: 599. Discusses Bizet with Morel; his affected laugh: V 384–85. Charlus ridicules Brichot’s suggestion that he might be homosexual: 403–4. Fascinated by Morel’s tears: 429–30. In old age, has become like a dried fruit or flower: VI 88.

SOUVRÉ, Marquise de. Friend of the Princesse de Parme, but not received by Oriane de Guermantes: III 620–21. Her social manner: IV 66–67. Half-hearted attempt to introduce M to the Prince de Guermantes: 67–69, 70, 73. Conversation with Odette about the Verdurins: 365. Evoked by M at the Guermantes reception: VI 89.

STERMARIA, Mile (later Mme, and finally Vicomtesse Alix) de. At Balbec with her father, a Breton squire: II 351–52. Her aristocratic looks: 357. M’s dream of love on a Breton island with her: 363–65 (cf. III 528–29). Saint-Loup meets her in Tangier (divorced after three months of marriage) and arranges for M to dine with her in Paris: III 475–78. A letter from her agreeing to dine on the island in the Bois: 506. M’s pleasurable anticipation; she cries off at the last moment: 525–39.

STERMARIA, M. de. Breton squire, father of the above, on holiday at Balbec: II 351. His contemptuous arrogance: 352, 357. Introduces himself to the barrister as a friend of the Cambremers: 363.

SûRETé, Director of the. M receives a summons from him for having corrupted a little girl; his cynicism: V 597–99.

SURGIS-LE-DUG, Marquise or Duchesse de. Mistress of the Duc de Guermantes: III 675. At the Princesse de Guermantes’s; her statuesque beauty: IV 70, reproduced in her two sons: 116–17, 120–21. Charlus’s unwonted friendliness towards her; her portrait by Jacquet; introduces her sons to the Baron: 127–46. Swann gazes concupiscently at her bosom: 142, 146. Origin of her name; her social position: 143–44. Later, forbids her sons to visit Charlus: V 269.

SURGIS-LE-DUC, Victurnien and Arnulphe de. Sons of the above; their “great and dissimilar” beauty derived from their mother: IV 116–17. Admired by Charlus: 120–21. Introduced to him by their mother: 130–31. Conversation with him: 131–35, 140–41. Their subsequent visits to him, eventually forbidden by their mother: V 269.

SWANN, Charles. His evening visits at Combray; his brilliant social life unsuspected by M’s family: I 16–35. Why he might have understood M’s anguish at having to go to bed without a good-night kiss from his mother: 39–41. His habit, inherited from his father, of rubbing his eyes and drawing his hand across his forehead in moments of stress: 45 (cf. 381, 420, 452, 493, 510, 537, 588). “Giotto’s Charity”: 110. His Jewish origin: 125. Speaks to M about Bergotte and Berma: 134–37. “Swann’s Way” (the Méséglise way); his estate