"From what you tell me," her voice was calm, "you have never been married. You made a mistake as a boy. And once again you bought a woman, as you might a fine dog, admired her, as you might admire a fine dog, and gave her a little passion, which comes and goes, knocks, passes on--but no trust. And once you were infatuated with a hysterical woman, and it all ended hysterically. No, Shane. I don't think you know much about women." "You know so many things." He was irritated. "Perhaps you know what is wrong with me." "Of course I do, Shane. Anybody would know. You are so important to yourself. All the world is in relation to you, not you in relation to the world. And people are not very important, Shane ... I know.... You look for things. You don't make them. You want everything. You give nothing. You haven't a wife, a house. Your father gave poems. But you haven't a house, a child, a wife, a book. You only have a trading-ship." "But I trade. I do my share of the world's work." "Any shop-keeper!" "I handle my ship." "Any mathematician...." "I brave all the perils of the sea." "Are you afraid of death?" "Of course not." "Well?" "Hedda, I handle men." "Any little braggadocio lieutenant...." His anger rose in hot waves. "So I am not worth anything in life, Hedda. How much are you?" "O, Shane," she stood up and looked at him seriously, "my calling is the oldest in the world, they say, but to me it's not the least honorable. It is sordid or not just as one makes it. I want you to think of men going to sea, and weary of the voyage, and from me somehow they get a glimpse of home. Are this house and myself more evil than the dram-shop and the gambling-hell? And aren't there women in England and France who would rather have their menfolk with me than leaning on some sodden counter? They might hate the choice, but it's better.... Shane, if you knew how weary men have talked to me of families abroad, their hearts burdened. They cannot talk to men ... and sometimes I exorcise devils, Shane, that young girls may walk safely in the dark.... And sometimes a man is athirst for a flash of beauty.... Think, Shane--you are not small.... Even yourself, Shane, I have helped you. There were times this month when you were close to the river, terribly, terribly close.... I said nothing, but I knew. And I held you. I willed. I prayed even ... Shane, Shane, _amigo_, when the time came that I had to work I chose this with my eyes open." "I'm sorry," Campbell lowered his head. "I can only say I'm sorry I said--hinted.... But Hedda, weren't there other things you could have done?" "A sempstress, maybe. But I think it's more important to ease a man's mind than to cover his back." "But children. You love children, Hedda. You know so much. Couldn't you have been a governess in some great house?"