Sex had become so complicated in him that he would have denied that he ever could want Clara or Miriam or any woman whom he knew.

Sex desire was a sort of detached thing, that did not belong to a woman.

He loved Miriam with his soul.

He grew warm at the thought of Clara, he battled with her, he knew the curves of her breast and shoulders as if they had been moulded inside him; and yet he did not positively desire her.

He would have denied it for ever.