“Is it true, what they say at the Hague? About Van der Staal?”
She looked at him haughtily.
“Come, out with it!”
“Yes.”
“You are a cheeky baggage! Do you no longer care a straw for the whole boiling of them?”
“No.”
“And how do you manage here, with this old hag?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do they just accept you here, at Nice?”
“I don’t brag about my independence; and no one is able to comment on my conduct here.”