"Have you let a female soul escape you?" said the Sun.
The Red Mouse answered:
"Love is stronger than I. When he keeps his hands pure, where he guards the door of the soul, I enter not. I sit outside and watch, and watch, and watch. But it is time lost. Love is strong; the door is barred to me."
Said the Sun:
"That is strange to hear. My sister, the Moon, has told me oftentimes that Eros is your pander—always."
"Anteros only," said the Red Mouse.
The Sun, wondering, said again:
"And yet I have heard that it is your boast that into every female soul you enter at birth, and dwell there unto death. Is it, then, not so?"
The Red Mouse answered:
"The boast is not mine; it is man's."