Céleste hesitates, then:

CÉLESTE   Permit me, monsieur.
She removes the buttonhole, then starts to take Massis through to the bedroom.

INT. PROUST’S APARTMENT. KITCHEN. NIGHT.

Céleste puts the buttonhole in a glass of water.

INT. PROUST’S BEDROOM. NIGHT.

Proust is holding Massis’s viola.

PROUST   None of you compete, have you noticed that?

MASSIS   Compete?

PROUST   You and your colleagues. You criticise each other, but you don’t take offence. You collaborate.

MASSIS   Naturally.

PROUST   It’s not at all natural.

MASSIS   It is in quartets.

PROUST   Then they are a lesson to us all.

MASSIS   What I’d like one day is an Amati.

PROUST   (smiling) Not a Stradivarius?

MASSIS   No. A Stradivarius is a concert instrument. An Amati is more … intimate.

PROUST   A Stradivarius is for oratory, an Amati for conversation. And both are very expensive.

MASSIS   Is your novel about music, monsieur?

PROUST   Music occurs in it, music recurs in it. A particular piece of music.

MASSIS   The César Franck?

PROUST   Not exactly. Though it will do. But then novels are like that. People think this tune must be that tune, that this character is modelled on so-and-so. This other is a portrayal of someone else.
He shakes his head.
It isn’t like that. Art does not correspond to life. It is life. For instance there’s a violinist in my novel. Or he could be a viola player.

MASSIS   What’s he like?

PROUST   I don’t think he’s like you. His name is Morel. He’s a poor boy, the son of a valet. He acquires a rich friend and patron, whom I think he will abandon … he hasn’t quite decided to yet, but I can see it coming. He’ll be very cruel to him, unfeeling.

MASSIS   Where did they meet?

PROUST   (smiling) Not at a concert. At a railway station. A setting fruitful in chance encounters.
He holds up the viola for Massis to play.
Massis takes the viola, stands beside the bed and starts to play.

INT. PROUST’S APARTMENT. HALL. NIGHT. LATER.

Céleste is helping Massis into his coat.

He is ready to leave when she opens her hand to give him something. It is the buttonhole.

CÉLESTE   Monsieur Massis. Your flower.
Céleste closes the door.

EXT. RUE DE TOURNON. CONCERT HALL. DAY.

The musicians come out of the building and go their separate ways. Massis walks past a waiting taxi.

Proust is sitting in the taxi.

PROUST   Monsieur Massis. Please.
The taxi driver opens the door for him.
Massis gets in.
The taxi drives off.

INT. RESTAURANT/CAFE. DAY.

Proust and Massis sit at a table.

PROUST   Have you ever visited Venice?

MASSIS   Alas, no.

PROUST   What would assist me immeasurably in my work would be to listen to you and your colleagues play some of my chosen pieces by moonlight while waiting for the dawn.

MASSIS   In Paris?