Aime took londgings close to Mme Bontemps's villa; he made the acquaintance of a maidservant, and of a jobmaster from whom Albertine had often hired a carriage by the day. These people had noticed nothing. In a second letter, Aime informed me that he had learned from a young laundry-girl in the town that Albertine had a peculiar way of gripping her arm when she brought back the washing. "But," she said, "the young lady never did anything more." I sent Aime the money to pay for his journey, to pay for the pain he had caused me by his letter, and meanwhile I was doing my best to heal it by telling myself that what he had described as a familiarity which gave no proof of any vicious desire, when I received a telegram from him: "Have learned most interesting things. Have heaps of news for Monsieur. Letter follows." On the following day came a letter the envelope of which was enough to make me tremble; I had recognised that it was from Aime, for every person, even the humblest, has under his control those little familiar creatures, at once alive and reclining in a sort of torpor upon the paper: the characters of his hand-writing which he alone possesses.
"At first the young laundry-girl refused to tell me anything, she assured me that Mlle Albertine had never done anything more than pinch her arm. But to get her to talk, I took her out to dinner and gave her plenty to drink. Then she told me that Mlle Albertine often used to meet her on the bank of the Loire, when she went to bathe, that Mlle Albertine, who was in the habit of getting up very early to go and bathe, was in the habit of meeting her by the water's edge, at a spot where the trees are so thick that nobody can see you, and besides there is nobody who can see you at the hour in the morning. Then the laundry-girl brought her girl friends and they bathed and afterwards, as it is already very hot down there and the sun beats down on you even through the trees, they used to lie about on the grass drying themselves and playing and stroking and tickling one another. The young laundry-girl confessed to me that she enjoyed playing with her girl friends and that seeing that Mlle Albertine was always rubbing up against her in her bathing-wrap she made her take it off and used to caress her with her tongue along the throat and arms, even on the soles of her feet when Mlle Albertine held out to her. The laundry-girl undressed too, and they played at pushing each other into the water. After that she told me nothing more, but being always at your service and ready to do anything to oblige you, I took the young laundry-girl to bed with me. She asked me if I would like her to do to me what she used to do to Mlle Albertine when she took off her bathing-dress. And she said to me: (If you could have seen how she used to wriggle, that young lady, she said to me (oh, it's too heavenly) and she got so excited that she could not keep from biting me.) I could still see the marks on the laundry-girl's arms. And I can understand Mlle Albertine's pleasure, for that young wench is really a very good performer."
Marcel Proust, The Fugitive, pp. 534-536
Suddenly some bizarre film noir version of a D.H. Lawrence novel has broken out. Aime, who I am imagining as the less kick-ass version of Robert Mitchum from Out of the Past, continues to investigate Albertine's secret life. If nothing else, at least Aime was a hard worker: "After that she told me nothing more, but being always at your service and ready to do anything to oblige you, I took the young laundry-girl to bed with me." Aime paints a provocative, especially for a century ago, although not terribly lurid, picture of Albertine's adventures. In the letter Aime states: "The young laundry-girl confessed to me that she enjoyed playing with her girl friends and that seeing that Mlle Albertine was always rubbing up against her in her bathing-wrap she made her take it off and used to caress her with her tongue along the throat and arms, even on the soles of her feet when Mlle Albertine held out to her." According to the laundry-girl Albertine was very passionate, something that doesn't seem to mark her love affair with Marcel; she shares: "The young laundry-girl confessed to me that she enjoyed playing with her girl friends and that seeing that Mlle Albertine was always rubbing up against her in her bathing-wrap she made her take it off and used to caress her with her tongue along the throat and arms, even on the soles of her feet when Mlle Albertine held out to her." Aime sums up the report by stating, "And I can understand Mlle Albertine's pleasure, for that young wench is really a very good performer."
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