She did describe him, however, lovingly and at length. She laughed at her own ardent, exaggerated expressions, but she could not keep them back. She broke off as she saw Marcel's indulgent, bantering look. "I am boring you. Excuse me! You don't understand, do you?"
"Of course." Marcel understood. Marcel understood everything. Everyone to his own taste. He would not dispute that.
"In short," he said, "to sum it up, you have blossomed out into maternity. You have flown in the face of public order and the family as established by law. And, far from regretting it, you defy authority."
"What authority?" Annette asked. "I defy nothing."
"Well, then, public opinion, tradition, the Code Napoléon."
"I have nothing to do with all these things."
"That's the worst kind of defiance, the kind people will never pardon. But so be it! You have broken with everything, you have rid yourself of the whole clan. What are you going to do now?"
"Just what I did before."
Marcel looked sceptical.
"What, do you think I can't live as I used to do?"