."

Here Godfrey reflected that there was someone behind who tempted the
woman, also that it is better to work than to sit in a garden in
eternal idleness, and lastly, that a desire for knowledge is natural
and praiseworthy. Had Isobel been in his place she would have advanced
these arguments, probably in vigorous and pointed language, but, having
learnt something of Adam's lesson, he was wiser and held his tongue.

"There is this peculiarity about women," continued his parent, "which I
beg you always to remember. It is that when you think she is doing what
you want and that she loves you, you are doing what she wants and
really she only loves herself. Therefore you must never pay attention
to her soft words, and especially beware of her tears which are her
strongest weapon given to her by the father of deceit to enable her to
make fools of men. Do you understand?"

"Yes," said Godfrey, with hesitation, "but----" this burst from him
involuntarily, "but, Father, if you have always avoided women, as you
say, how do you know all this about them?"

For a moment Mr. Knight was staggered. Then he rose to the occasion.

"I know it, Godfrey, by observing the effect of their arts on others,
as I have done frequently."

A picture rose in Godfrey's mind of his father with his eye to
keyholes, or peering through fences with wide-open ears, but wisely he
did not pursue the subject.

"My son," continued and ended Mr. Knight, "I have watched you closely
and I am sure that your weakness lies this way. Woman is and always
will be the sin that doth so easily beset you. Even as a child you
loved Mrs. Parsons much more than you did me, because, although old and
unsightly, she is still female. When you left your home this morning
for the first time, who was it that you grieved to part from? Not your
companions, the other boys, but Mrs. Parsons again, whom I found you
embracing in that foolish fashion, yes, and mingling your tears with
hers, of which at your age you should be ashamed. Indeed I believe that
you feel being separated from that garrulous person, who is but a
servant, more than you do from me, your father."

Here he waited for Godfrey's contradiction, but as none came, went on
with added acerbity:

"Of that _anguis in herba_, that viper, Isobel, who turns the pure milk
of the Word to poison and bites the hand that fed her, I will say
nothing, nothing," (here Godfrey reflected that Isobel would have been
better describe