May 5, 2012
M. de Charlus...gave a little laugh that was peculiar to him, a laugh that had probably come down from some Bavarian or Lorraine grandmother, who had herself got the identical laugh from one of her forebears, so that it had been ringing out like this, unchanged, for a good few centuries in the lesser courts of old Europe, and its precious quality had been enjoyed, like that of certin old musical instruments now grown very uncommon.
Marcel Proust, Sodom and Gomorrah, translated by John Sturrock, p. 332.