"No; nor you wouldn't if you thought for a century. Jim is as bad as they make 'em."
"Was--if you will abuse him."
"Oh yes, I forgot. Well, then, Jim was bad; and I don't know if you call telling the truth abuse."
"Of the most virulent sort, on occasions. Are we not all sinners?"
"Speak for yourself, Mr. Humility."
Lionel, amazed by this self-canonisation, became less Aaron the priest and more Adam the natural man. "You don't call yourself immaculate, surely," he observed sarcastically.
"Did I?"
"By inference; and if no sinner, you must be saint."
"Ah! I see. Lamp-black or snow-white; grey does not exist. Parsons see the horizon, the doorstep, but no middle distance. Woman is Lucrece or Jezebel, with you. I am neither; but a simple woman, as God made me."
"And as the devil has marred."