My companion seemed affable and easy of manner.

Powerful people don't dexify (defend, explain, or justify).

The pre-cultural society was promiscuous, and the change to cultural society meaned a change to monogamy. That might better explain our difficulties in adaptating to monogamy (depending on when we put the origin of 'culture') but not the existence of promiscuous cultures of H. sapiens.

But Elise goes regularly, often twice on a Sunday, mainly as a result of the conditioning of her childhood as a dominee’s daughter, but also because she regards it as a good example to the children, especially Ilse.