Annette, with lowered eyes, said neither yes nor no. Sylvie was indignant: "I hope very much you won't have the heart to make me beg you."
"No," said Annette, lifting radiant eyes that were filled with tears.
They kissed each other passionately, half lovingly, half angrily. Sylvie bit Annette's ear. Annette cried out, "So you are biting now! Suppose it were I whom you call crazy. But it's you. Are you angry?"
"Yes, I am," said Sylvie. "How can you expect me not to hate you? You steal from me everything I have, my husband, my daughter. . . ."
Annette burst out laughing. "Keep your husband. He means nothing to me."
"Nor to me either," said Sylvie. "But he is mine. I forbid anyone to touch him."
"Why not put a sign on him?"
"You are the one I should like to put it on, you ugly old thing! . . . What is it about you that attracts them? They all fall in love with you."
"Oh, no."
"Yes, they do. All of them, Odette, that silly Leopold. . . . Other people. . . . Everybody. . . . And I too! I detest you! I wish I could get rid of you. But it can't be done. There's no way of shaking you off!"