"What do you know of the Garden of Eden?"

"I get my information from Milton," she replied cheerfully, as though much relieved.

"Have you read Paradise Lost, then, Con?"

"I read it all through in my lodgings. And it's really rather good. In fact, the remarks of Raphael to Adam in the eighth book—I think it is—are still just about the last word on the relations of the sexes:

"Oft-times nothing profits more

Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right

Well-managed; of that skill the more thou

know'st,

The more she will acknowledge thee her head

And to realities yield all her shows