"The Russian people realized very long ago that life is no more than a dream. You know what a succubus is?"

"Yes," said Anna, with a smile. "A demon that takes female form to seduce a sleeping man. But what's the connection?"

I counted to ten again. My feelings had not changed.

"The most direct one possible. When they say in Russian vernacular that all women suck, the word "suck" as used in the phrase is actually derived from the word "succubus." An association which came to Russia via Catholicism. No doubt you remember - the seventeenth century, the Polish invasion, in other words, the Time of Troubles. That's what it goes back to. But I am wondering. All I wished to say was that the very phrase "all women suck,"" - I reiterated the words with genuine relish - "means in essence that life is no more than a dream. And so are all the bitches. That is, I meant to say, the women."