...of eluding questions

I should have liked her to ask: "What was I, and what am I now?" And then I should have answered: "You were an honest girl and now you're a whore." At the same time her question would have indicated a need on her part to be well-considered, esteemed, appreciated by me. But I was disappointed in my hope: Cecilia did not open her mouth, and I saw that silence was the only answer I could expect from her. This silence meant that lying and unfaithfulness were, for her, words devoid of significance, not so much because she did not understand them as because they did not denote anything particular in her life. I felt she was eluding me again, and I seized her by her arms and shook her, crying out in a rage: " Why don't you speak, say something, why don't you answer?"

She announced, quite sincerely: "I have nothing to say."

[Boredom, Moravia, A.]