"Oh no! don't you see my husband was a deserter."
"You have never written to anyone?"
"Oh no!"
"And you have never heard anyone speak of your family, of your father, or mother?"
"Oh no, mama was dead."
This woman had preserved a certain childishness, the simplicity of those who throw themselves into love, as if over a precipice.
He asked again:
"You have never told this to anyone?"
She answered: "Oh no! I can say it now, because Maurice is deaf. As long as, he could hear, I should not have dared to mention it. Besides, I have never seen anyone but the peasants since I ran away."
"At least, then, you have been happy?"