Mme. Petrovskey nodded gayly. “Do you follow the new method of free expression?”
“I believe that one’s desires, if decent, should be gratified.” He fixed his eyes upon Claire’s face with an expression at once baffling and affectionate.
Mme. Petrovskey bridled. “There are so many standards of decency, aren’t there? And that of a young doctor might be considered lax by an old fogy like myself.”
Alexis shot her a tortured glance. “Since when have you become so interested in Psycho-Analysis? This is getting too high-brow for Claire and me, isn’t it, Claire?”
She met his harried gaze with an apologetic smile at once pleading and listless. “I’m afraid I wasn’t paying much attention.”
Mme. Petrovskey turned towards her punctiliously. Her eyes beneath the smile seemed to strip the girl to the bone, and Claire cowered away as from a limelight. “You had better listen, dear child. For the matter concerns you profoundly.”
“Concerns me?” she muttered inexplicably uneasy.
“Yes, indeed,” playfully. “We’re talking about the doctor’s repressed and unrepressed desires.”
“What have I to do with them?” Her voice was cold with dawning fear.
“We are trying to discover in which of the two pigeon-holes you belong.”