My Year With Proust - Day 326

   As I was in no hurry to arrive at the Guermantes reception to which I was not certain that I had been invited, I remained sauntering out of doors; but the summer day seemed to be in no greater haste to stir.  Although it was after nine o'clock, it was still the daylight that was giving the Luxor obelisk on the Place de la Concorde the appearance of pink nougat.  Then it dilute the tint and changed the surface to a metallic substance, so that the obelisk not only became more precious but seemed more slender and almost flexible.  One felt that one might have been able to twist this jewel, that one had perhaps already slightly bent it.  The moon was now in the sky like a section of an orange delicately peeled although slightly bruised.  But a few hours later it was to be fashioned of the most enduring gold.  Nestling alone behind it, a poor little star was to serve as sole companion to the lonely moon, while the latter, keeping its friend protected but striding ahead more boldly, would brandish like an irresistible weapon, like an oriental symbol, its broad, magnificent golden crescent.

Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain, p. 657

Proust moves on into Chapter One of the Part Two of Cities of the Plain.  Marcel is trapped by his own self-doubt outside a reception because he's not certain whether or not he was actually invited to attend or not.  How many of us have been in that situation over the years (although, I suspect, not at the level of a Guermantes reception)?  I included this section because it sets up the following discussion, but also because it is beautifully written.  Proust takes a break from fretting to look into the sky: "The moon was now in the sky like a section of an orange delicately peeled although slightly bruised.  But a few hours later it was to be fashioned of the most enduring gold.  Nestling alone behind it, a poor little star was to serve as sole companion to the lonely moon, while the latter, keeping its friend protected but striding ahead more boldly, would brandish like an irresistible weapon, like an oriental symbol, its broad, magnificent golden crescent."  In this case the arrival of the Duc de Chatellerault, who served as a moon to Proust's "poor little star," allowed Marcel to enter the reception.