sses
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."