"Why do you have your chin shaved like that," he inquired of the Baron in a winsome tone. "it's so becoming, a nice beard." "Ugh! It's disgusting," the Baron replied.
Meanwhile he still lingered on the threshold and plied Jupien with questions about the neighbourhood. "You don't know anything about the man who sells chestnuts round the corner, not the one on the left, he's a horror, but on the other side, a big dark fellow? And the chemist opposite, he has a charming cyclist who delivers his parcels." There questions must have ruffled Jupien, for, drawing himself up with the indignation of a courtesan who has been betrayed, he replied: "I can see you are thoroughly fickle." Uttered in a pained, frigid, affected tone, this reproach must have had an effect on M. de Charlus, who, to counteract the bad impression his curiosity had produced, addressed to Jupien, in too low a tone for me to be able to make out his words,a request the granting of which would doubtless necessitate their prolonging their sojourn in the shop, and which moved the tailor sufficiently to ake him forget his annoyance, for he studied the Baron's face, plump and flushed neath his grey hair, with the supremely blissful air of a person whose self-esteem has just been profoundly flattered, and, deciding to grant M. de Charlus the favour that he had just asked of him, afte various remarks lacking in refinement such as "What a big bum you have!" said to the Baron with an air at once smiling, impassioned, superior and grateful: "All right, you big baby, come along!"
Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain, pp. 631-632
M. de Charlus and Jupien have finished their tryst, and the Baron remains on the "threshold," both of the shop and of a life that he is hiding from plain sight. I included this scene because, beyond the obvious physical, and hidden, nature of this relationship, there was obviously some affection, best shown by the little cutting remarks that lovers use to tweak and rein in their beloveds.
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