flock.

She raised herself on her elbow, resting her cheek in her hand.

"You are the first, really you are, I am not lying: the others don't
exist."

He felt no jealousy in respect of the past; he had no fear of
comparisons. He questioned her:

"Then the others?"

"To begin with, there were only two: my professor, and he of course
doesn't count, and there was the man I told you about, a solid sort of a
person, whom my mother saddled me with."

"No more?"

"I swear it."

"And Chevalier?"

"Chevalier? He? Good gracious, no! You wouldn't have had me look at
him!"

"And the solid sort of person found by your mother, he, too, does not
count any more?"

"I assure you that, with you, I am another woman. It's the solemn truth
that you are the first to possess me. It's queer, all the same.