37/42 I want to put things clearly before you--" It is the most difficult thing in the world for a man--even without legs--to talk straight about the facts of life to a young girl. He has no idea how much she knows about them and how much she doesn't. To tear away veils and reveal frightening starkness is an act from which he shrinks with all the modesty of a (perhaps) deluded sex. "I want," I repeated, "to put things clearly before you. |