'One must never state things baldly. One must qualify. It's the difference between Truth and mere Fact. Truth is Fact qualified. You must add that the woman knew the man by common report to be of the highest possible respectability, and that she saw for herself he was (alas!) altogether harmless. And then you must explain that the affair took place in the country, in the spring; and that the cigarettes were the properest conceivable sort of cigarettes, having been rolled by hand in England.'
'You wouldn't believe me if I said I had never done such a thing before? They all say that, don't they?'
'Yes, they all say that. But, oddly enough, I do believe you.'
'Then you're not entirely lost to grace, not thoroughly a cynic.'
'Oh, there are some good women.'
'And some good men?'
'Possibly. I've never happened to meet one.'
'The eye of the beholder!'
'If you like. But I don't know. There are such things, no doubt, as cynics by temperament; congenital cynics. Then, indeed, you may cry: The eye of the beholder. But others become cynics, are driven into cynicism, by sad experience. I started in life with the rosiest faith in my fellow-man. If I've lost it, it's because he's always behaved shabbily to me, soon or late; always taking some advantage. The struggle for existence! We're all beasts, who take part in it; we must be, or we're devoured. Women for the most part are out of it. Anyhow, plus je vois les hommes, plus j'aime les femmes.'
'Are you a beast too?'