Instead Mike went right on cuddling Jill with one hand while keeping his other arm snug around Ben's waist... and Ben was forced to admit that Jill encouraged him, rather than otherwise.  Mike said very seriously, "Ben, a night like last night - helping a group to make the big jump to Eighth Circle - gets me terribly keyed up.  Let me tell you something out of the lessons for Sixth, Ben.  We humans have something that my former people don't even dream of.  They can't.  And I can tell you how precious it is... how especially precious I know it to be, because I have known what it is not to have it.  The blessing of being male and female.  Man and Woman created He them - the greatest treasure We-Who-Are-God ever invented.  Right, Jill?"