Bradley Corman winced at the dean's crude question. "It's not really the girls I'm concerned about. I'm more concerned with the kind of man that would take a once innocent child and turn her into some kind of a wanton… hussy!"

Lowell raised a busy eyebrow and Brad saw the slightest sign of a condescending smirk on his jowly face. "It happens, you know, Reverend Corman. They don't retain virginity forever. Kids nowadays don't revere virginity like our generation did. It's only something to get rid of… an encumbrance like adenoids… I'm afraid if you're going to tell your little charges in the chapel that they have to save it for marriage you're not going to have too many takers…"

He tilted his chair back and looked at the minister in a bemused fashion.

"For heaven's sake, Dean. I'm not that naive. I know it happens all the time but not here at Craven, and it doesn't happen all the time in public this way with kids not even in their teens putting on exhibitions… yes, exhibitions! And there's a reason why it's happening here, now."

The minister paused, wiping his forehead, surprised that it was covered with cold sweat. He hadn't really realized before that this thing meant so much to him. But he did. He cared about these young girls at the school, cared what was happening to them. And why didn't the dean? What was the matter with him that he seemed so disinterested with something occurring right under his nose when he was the first citizen to take on almost any cause in the city.

The Dean of Craven was staring at him again, his mouth a tight, grim line. What was the matter with him?