"How can you say such things?"
"One has seen what one has seen, these last few days. I think you are what that original Phinuit would call 'a fast worker,' Liane."
"What stupidity! If I seek to make myself liked, you know well it is with a purpose."
"One hardly questions that."
"You judge harshly ... Michael."
Lanyard spent a look of astonishment on the darkness. He could not remember that Liane had ever before called him by that name.
"Do I? Sorry...." His tone was listless. "But does it matter?"
"You know that to me nothing else matters."
Lanyard checked off on his fingers: "Swain, Collison, Mussey. Who next? Why not I, as well as another?"
"Do you imagine for an instant that I class you with such riffraff?"