Shimrod said: “Once I thought of you as a child in a woman’s body.” Melancthe smiled a cool smile. “And now?” “The child seems to have wandered away.” - Jack Vance

“It seems that you are wrong, that you are guided by faith indeed.”
The Demie fell silent. His face seemed to stiffen.
“Are these not facts?” asked Joaz. “How do you reconcile them with your faith?
The Demie said mildly, “Facts can never be reconciled with faith.”

Elvo Glissam only knew for certain that he found Schaine as beautiful some magnificent natural process, like a sunrise, or a surge of breaking surf, or stars in the midnight sky.

Who is seducing whom? If we are working to the same ends, there is no need for so many cross-purposes.