And then--just at the critical moment when I was passing from boyhood into manhood, I met you." He stopped.

His brown cheeks were glowing, and he avoided Valentine's gaze.
"Go on, Julian," Valentine said.

"I want to hear this." "All right, I'll finish now, but I don't know why I ever began.

Perhaps you'll think me a fool, or a sentimentalist." "Nonsense!" "Well, I don't know how it is, but when I saw you I first understood that there is a good deal in what the parsons say, that sin is beastly in itself, don't you know, even apart from one's religious convictions, or the injury one may do to others.

When I saw you, I understood that sin degrades one's self, Valentine.