"You mean I'm just loafing about?"
"You're not really interested in your work."
"You are indeed serious," said Peter, again trying to make light of her catechism. "Aren't you overdoing it?"
Vivette sharply rebuked him, and he did not again interrupt. She held to him an unflattering mirror in which he saw an image of himself which frightened him. He was rich. He had nothing particular to do. He drifted about, meeting elegant and attractive people—mostly women. Everywhere he unconsciously opened himself to one appeal. He was idle; and he was obsessed.
He struggled against this indictment. He even became angry. What did this talk of Vivette really mean? It meant that he desperately loved her.
"This obsession you tell me of!" he cried. "It is you."
"For the time being," she shortly answered.
"Always," he insisted.
"It might easily be someone else. Think, Peter. Have you once been free during these last years?"
Peter was silent.