Commonplace Book

'Miss Crookenden refused to see what was unlovely, to admit the existence of what was impure. If she needs must touch pitch, she would whitewash her pitch first, believing thereby to escape defilement. Many of the sweetest and noblest women go through life practising these pious frauds upon themselves. It is impossible not to honour them. Yet fraud, even of this high-minded description, remains fraud still, and brings its inevitable punishment along with it.'

from The Wages of Sin by Lucas Malet (Book II, Chapter IV)