“So who is she? No wait, let me guess. Skin of the finest porcelain. Hair of the softest silk. A voice like birdsong, a smile like sunshine, and a mouth that would sate your brightest and darkest wishes."You've met her?""Oh yes, my friend. We all know her. We've all pursued her. Some of us have even been lucky enough to have her. We've been drunk on her sin, become fools of her favor. she might have borne a different face each time, but her name was always the same. Trouble.”

“No, wait, let me guess. Skin of the finest porcelin. Hair of the softest silk. A voice like birdsong, a smile like sunshine, and a mouth … that could sate your brightest and darkest wishes.”“You’ve … m-met her?” “Oh yes, my friend. We all know her. We’ve all pursued her. Some of us have even been lucky enough to have her. We’ve been drunk on her sin, become fools for her favor. She might have borne a different face each time, but her name was always the same. Trouble”

“She kissed me on the mouth. Her mouth tasted like iced coffee and cardamom, and I was overwhelmed by the taste, her hot skin and the smell of unwashed hair. I was confused, but not unwilling. I would have let her do anything to me.”

“No one could see her objectively anyway. Even those who saw her for the first time, before she had opened her mouth to sing. Found her radiant, as if her talent could not be contained in her voice and so poured like light though her skin. Then all that could be seen was the weight and the gloss of her hair and the pale pink of her cheeks and her beautiful hands.”

“But you shouldn't have let her. That's the only way with these fanciful women that chaw high--innocent or guilty. She'd have come round in time. We all do! Custom does it! It's all the same in the end! However, I think she's fond of her man still--whatever he med be of her. You were too quick about her. I shouldn't have let her go! I should have kept her chained on-- her spirit for kicking would have been broke soon enough! There's nothing like bondage and a stone-deaf taskmaster for taming us women. Besides, you've got the laws on your side. Moses knew.”

“The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity.”