But Valentine did not respond to his generous emotion.
"I thought she looked a very degraded young person," he said, distantly. "And not interesting. The woman who is falling is interesting. The woman who has reached the bottom, who has completely arrived at degradation, is dull enough."
"But she is not utterly degraded, Val. For I know that she can see and understand something of the horror of her own condition."
Valentine put his hand on Julian's shoulder.
"I know what you are thinking," he said.
"What?"
"That you would like to rescue this girl."
A dull blush ran over Julian's face.
"I don't know that I had got quite so far as that," he said. "Would it be absurd if I had?"
"I am not sure that it would not be wrong. Probably this girl lives the life she is best fitted for."