Near the end of Chapter 2, you will find this short paragraph (another sentence fragment, by the way—guess they're not so bad after all, provided you know how to use them):
Not so much like drops of water, though water, it is true, can wear holes in the hardest granite; rather, drops of liquid sealing-wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally the rock is all one scarlet blob.
Explore this simile and decide what it signifies.