He shook his shoulders as though to shrug off his seriousness.
"You say you don't want to get married again. That's idiotic. Haven't you lived long enough to escape from fear of this 'marriage bond' bugaboo? With all your talk of emancipation, you're still as conventional as Mrs. Grundy. Marriage will save us from tiresome ructions with the neighbors, but as far as being afraid of the ceremony—why—I'd just as lief marry a person as lend her ten dollars.
"Where does the Maire live? I'll go down and tell him to dust his tricolor sash."
"No."
"B., il faut de l'audace."
"It would be foolish after Paris."
"Et encore de l'audace—"
"Besides I've leased this cottage for two years."
"Et toujours de l'audace."
"Well," she said, "if you're as flippant about it as all that, I don't suppose it matters much."