"I dunno. You might have found yourself—by that honesty—to be somebody who wouldn't like me. Ergo—how could I go on insisting—?"
"Only that?"
"Only that. It's a lot."
"You sure, Phil? Certain?"
"My-God-yes! A great, great many of the people I know, and am fond of, and admire, would look at your sin as just a sort of timid, dainty experiment. I suppose you're fishing around for rebuke. You'll never get much. Most women learn by doing—some men, by just thinking. What are you doing tonight, for instance?"
"I—I don't know yet." She flushed peach-pink. "I haven't—decided."
"Unh!"
"You sound like Rol. Like Rol—after— Before I left. Dainty—he talked like that."
"They bring us up—in a desert," I said. "Because that's where they grew up." I thought of Needles and the metallic sunlight and the Moslem prince. "Still—there are other things in life besides sex."
"Not if sex isn't right, there aren't. Not any other things worth living for."