el humiliated at the very thought? . . . Even if you succeed, it'll be nothing to boast about!" (16).
The threat of the seduction to Valmont's prestige is relevant because it must be set beside his blasé worldliness and Tourvel's mindless chastity. His attitude owes something to the fact that he does not really have enough to do, like Merteuil exercising sexual freedom on a more or less routine basis. There is, of course, a subtext of decadence to his casual sexuality, and his acknowledgment of the fact speaks to a faint moral sense. As he tells Merteuil: "Let's be frank: in our mutual accommodations which are as cold-blooded as they are casual, our so-called happiness can hardly be described as pleasure" (Laclos 20). What moral sense Valmont possesses surfaces only at h
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