"You surely don't mean—"
"That some human beings are born merely to further the necessities of sin in the scheme of creation? I don't know that. Nature, in certain countries, demands and obtains pernicious and deadly snakes to live in her bosom. Man demands and obtains female snakes to live in his bosom. Are not such women literally created for this métier? How can one tell?"
"But if they are unhappy?"
"You think they would be happy in purity?"
"I believe she would."
Valentine smiled and shook his head.
"I expect her sorrows are not caused by the loss of her virtue, but merely by her lack of the luxuries of life. These birds always want their nests to be made of golden twigs and lined with satin."
But Julian remained unconvinced.
"You don't know her," he said. "Why, Valentine, you have never known such a woman! You! The very notion is ridiculous."
"I have seen them in their Garden of Eden, offering men the fruit of the tree of knowledge."