"All right," Nicholas said when Serena pushed back at him. "You think my suggestion of merely peeking out from your prison will lead you to rack and ruin, that only the walled safety of your monastery can protect your virtue. This tells me that not only do you not trust Christian, but you don't even trust yourself.<br/><br/>"For example," he continued. "I suppose you have allowed yourself the pleasure of a bowl or cone of ice cream at least once in your life, yes? It's nourishment, but it's mostly a pleasure -- a hedonistic pleasure, you might say, the gratification of oneself. Your first taste of ice cream didn't make you go out and eat nothing else ever again, did it? Of course not. It's neither good nor healthy to eat ice cream all the time. Nor do I countenance the use of illegal drugs at any time.<br/><br/>"But would you deny yourself the taste of ice cream, because it gave you pleasure? Did you know that the waltz was considered Vienna's forbidden dance? And that rock 'n roll music 70 years ago was considered obscene in many places? All those people making all those rules in order to keep people from feeling the innocent pleasure of excitement."<br/><br/>He looked at Serena with a serious mien.<br/><br/>A woman needs to think for herself -- you know that. Make your own rules based on what you want for yourself, not simply slavishly conform to everyone else's rules. And do you think for one minute that by doing something that excited you a little, that made your blood pound in your veins and give your life a little excitement that you could bring about the downfall of society? Please."<br/><br/>He smiled when she asked what he had in mind.<br/><br/>"<em>I</em>am not going to transform your life," he said. "<em>You</em>are. I'm just going to be your tour guide, your Sherpa through the mountains of your undiscovered interests and maybe some modest pleasures and moments of excitement. They'll all be a little different. I only ask that you engage yourself with what we do, and enjoy it."<br/><br/>With that Nicholas rose, picked up Serena's coat as if to help her put it on, and said, "Come on; let's go and I'll show you what we're going to do."