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.