She
retreated to her father's chair again, and held him round the neck;
while Silas, with a subdued sob, put up his hand to grasp hers.
The tears were in Nancy's eyes, but her sympathy with Eppie was,
naturally, divided with distress on her husband's account. She dared
not speak, wondering what was going on in her husband's mind.
Godfrey felt an irritation inevitable to almost all of us when we
encounter an unexpected obstacle. He had been full of his own
penitence and resolution to retrieve his error as far as the time
was left to him; he was possessed with all-important feelings, that
were to lead to a predetermined course of action which he had fixed on
as the right, and he was not prepared to enter with lively
appreciation into other people's feelings counteracting his virtuous
resolves. The agitation with which he spoke again was not quite
unmixed with anger.
'But I have a claim on you, Eppie- the strongest of all claims.
It is my duty, Marner, to own Eppie as my child, and provide for
her. She is my own child- her mother was my wife. I have a natural
claim on her that must stand before every other.'
Eppie had given a violent start, and turned quite pale. Silas, on
the contrary, who had been relieved, by Eppie's answer, from the dread
lest his mind should be in opposition to hers, felt the spirit of
resistance in him set free, not without a touch of parental
fierceness.
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