Glad to hear you liked the picture :) Trying to decide what to put into flickr search was a bit tricky (I think there were a couple of others by the same person).

It seems that by this point an explosion of sexual feeling could be just what he needs.
Yes, I tend to agree. I certainly don't think the Frenchman would have been a totally inappropriate person to explore that side of him with, but the narrative clearly disagrees, there's the reference to the "odours from the abyss"--Maurice is only allowed, it seems, to become sexual with the person who is the right "special friend" for him.

The special friend thing makes is hard to say whether or not he'd been able to have sex with someone he doesn't really know and not regret it dreadfully afterwards. On the one hand, the physical side of relationship seems important and natural to him, even if he was willing to accept Clive's terms and not explore it, on the other hand, that special someone has been part of his dreams from boyhood and I'm not entirely sure he can separate love and sex. Or that he'd want that at this stage.