CHAPTER V. TELLS OF AN ERRING WOMAN. While the captain and Comethup were trudging steadily homeward through the rain, the man in the dull upstairs room sat within his circle of light, trying to fix his mind upon the work before him. He held his broad forehead between his palms, and set his lips, and bent his eyes steadily upon the printed page, tapping out a little impatient measure with his foot, in anger with himself that he could not concentrate his attention. Finally, he got up impatiently, kicking the books out of his path, and began to stride up and down that end of the room, having something again of the appearance of a hunted, animal trotting to and fro within the measure of its cage. "Am I such a brute?" he asked at last; "are there no days behind these--far away in the background--when things were better and fairer, and when I dreamed a dream, as other men have dreamed, of something greater even than books? It was all lies, lies, lies! The man who hugs a woman to his breast can only hold her safely if he pays the price, and knits her to him with chains of gold, forged tightly. His fleshly arms are never strong enough; she will slip out of them; all the tales of woman's constancy and woman's virtue have no word of truth in them; the women were virtuous because their lack of virtue was never discovered." He began to pace up and down again, locking his hands behind him, and alternately clasping them behind his head. "Why should I care?" he began again, restlessly. "There is a fate in all these things, and if the fate means that this child shall grow up, and live, and cheat another man, why, then the fate must do its work, and nothing that I can say will change it. I have had it in my mind sometimes to pray--if any prayers could avail--that the child might die; that's one of the mysteries of this strange creation of ours, that so fair and sweet a thing should grow up, to foul men's ways, and spoil their work. I wonder if I----" He was interrupted by the abrupt entry of Mrs. Blissett. That worthy woman appeared altogether demoralized, shaken to her prosaic depths; she came in panting, with one hand pressed to her ample bosom. The man stopped in his walk and turned savagely upon her, although without speaking. "Please, sir, there's a lady, sir, as do be come to see ye; and she----"