She’d embraced evil; she’d found it lacking. She was the sinner in search of the impossible salvation; she thought that only the uncorrupted and incorruptible policeman could restore her essential goodness. She had spotted something conflicted about Inspector Patel. She believed that he was virtuous and honorable, but also that she could seduce him; her logic was such that she thought of his virtue and his honor as transferable to her. Nancy’s illusion was not uncommon – nor is it an illusion limited to women. It is an old belief: that several sexually wrong decisions can be remedied – even utterly erased – by one decision that is sexually right. No one should blame Nancy for trying.
~ John Irving, A Son of the Circus
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