Marathe and Steeply: the Master copies and temptation — "You’ve never been even slightly tempted?…"
You’ve never been even slightly tempted? I mean personally. You the person. Wife’s condition be damned. Kids be damned. Just for a second, slip into wherever you guys keep it and load it and have a quick look? To see what’s all the fuss, the irresistible pull of the thing?
Context
Steeply asks the question the whole book is built to make you feel: could even you resist one look? He presses Marathe — the legless fanatic, the man of the most disciplined will imaginable, who has a copy within reach — on whether he's never been tempted to "just for a second … have a quick look." The temptation is framed as almost reasonable, curiosity itself ("to see what's all the fuss"), which is exactly its danger: the Entertainment doesn't need to overpower the incorruptible operative, only to interest him for a second. Marathe's flat "I have not been tempted" is either true fanaticism or the last defense of a man who knows the second look is not survivable. The scene makes the reader the third party in the room, testing their own certainty that they'd be the one who could take a quick look and get up again.