she stands unrecognized by them and unconscious herself of her fantastic power.

I had ceased to be Humbert the Hound, the sad-eyed degenerate cur clasping the boot that would presently kick him away. I was above the tribulations of ridicule, beyond the possibilities of retribution. In my self-made seraglio, I was a radiant and robust Turk, deliberately, in the full consciousness of his freedom, postponing the moment of actually enjoying the youngest and frailest of his slaves.

I should have known (by the signs made to me by something in Lolita -- the real child Lolita or some haggard angel behind her back) that nothing but pain and horror would result form the expected rapture. Oh, winged gentleman of the jury!

I appealed to her stale flesh very seldom, only in cases of great urgency and despair.