This remarkble series of stammers contains nothing less than the novel's attempt to define truth. The first word to go is "reason," implying a world of objective reference, replaced by "sense," which subtly implies "subjective perception." Decoud then tries to clarify truth as "effective truth," by which he seems to mean "truth as it affects the unique subjective soul," something that cannot apply to politics or journalism because they deal in the illusion of cooperative unity. The end result is a somewhat lame finish presented defiantly: "I happen to have said what I thought"; i.e., she should respect him because he spoke from the heart, which means from a standpoint of pure subjectivity, not unlike her touted idealism.