"Then you would want an unwholesome wife, my friend."
"Not at all. I want a natural one, that's all. Moreover," he added joyously, "I shall have one."
Philip glanced at him quickly. Into his mind flashed the memory of Claire's words in the room that fatal afternoon.
"I shall never marry such a woman," he declared, and added: "But I mean to have one whose devotion is so pure that even her talk to me of such things will be holy."
Lawrence laughed heartily.
"Philip," he said, still chuckling, "you seem to think we human beings are half supernatural and half stinking dirt. Why, in Heaven's name, don't you once see us as plain, healthy, intelligent animals?"
"Because we're half gods, half beasts."
"So I was once told by the son of an ancient mind whose farthest mental frontier reached A.D. 1123."
Philip rose and faced Lawrence, then looked shamefacedly at Claire, and sat down again.
"You think you are advanced because you are still unaware of anything but beasthood!"