Charles once enjoyed the company of the Verdurins, but made the fatal mistake of revealing his aristocratic background. Rejected by people beneath him, he lashes out.
"'[They really are]...beneath the lowest rung of the social ladder, the nethermost circle of Dante...Thank God, it was high time that I stopped condescending to promiscuous intercourse with such infamy, such dung...'"
"And so that drawing-room which had brought Swann and Odette together became an obstacle in the way of their meeting."
Now Odette is treating him with a cold shoulder, and he vacillates between jealous suspicion and passionate affection.
"This new manner, indifferent, offhand, irritable, which Odette now adopted with Swann, undoubtedly made him suffer; but he did not realize how much he suffered; since it was only gradually, day by day, that Odette had cooled towards him..."
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