Le jour où mes parents étaient allés chez lui en visite, je les avais accompagnés, mais ils m’avaient permis de rester dehors et, comme la maison de M. Vinteuil, Montjouvain, était en contre-bas d’un monticule buissonneux, où je m’étais caché, je m’étais trouvé de plain-pied avec le salon du second étage, à cinquante centimètres de la fenêtre. →
On the day when my parents had gone to pay him a visit, I had accompanied them, but they had allowed me to remain outside, and as M. Vinteuil's house, Montjouvain, stood on a site actually hollowed out from a steep hill covered with shrubs, among which I took cover, I had found myself on a level with his drawing-room, upstairs, and only a few feet away from its window.