lad, I'm sure,' answered his sister. Then, as if forcing
herself to address Peak directly, she faced to him and added, 'It isn't
easy to find sympathetic companions.'

'I, at all events, haven't found very many,' Godwin replied, meaning to
speak in a tone only half-serious, but conscious at once that he had
made what might seem an appeal for sympathy. Thereupon his pride
revolted, and in a moment drove him from the room.

Christian followed, and at the front door shook hands with him. Nervous
impatience was unmistakable in the young man's look and words. Again
Godwin speculated on the meaning of this, and wondered, in connection
therewith, what were the characteristics which Marcella Moxey looked
for in a 'sympathetic companion'.

CHAPTER V

In the course of the afternoon, Godwin sat down to pen the rough draft
of a letter to Lady Whitelaw. When the first difficulties were
surmounted, he wrote rapidly, and at considerable length. It was not
easy, at his time of life, to compress into the limits of an ordinary
epistle all he wished to say to the widow of his benefactor. His
purpose was, with all possible respect yet as firmly as might be, to
inform Lady Whitelaw that he could not spend the last of his proposed
three years at the College in Kingsmill, and furthermore to request of
her that she would permit his using the promised sum of money as a
student at the Royal School of Mines. This had to be done without
confession of the reasons for his change of plan; he could not even
hint at them. Yet cause must be assigned, and the best form of words he
could excogitate ran thus: 'Family circumstances render it
desirable--almost necessary--that I should spend the next twelve months
in London. In spite of sincere reluctance to leave Whitelaw College, I
am compelled to take this step.' The lady must interpret that as best
she might. Very hard indeed was the task of begging a continuance of
her bounty under these changed conditions. Could he but have resigned
the money, all had been well; his tone might then have been dignified
without effort. But such disinterestedness he could not afford. His
mother might grant him money enough barely to live upon until he
discovered means of support--for his education she was unable to pay.
After more than an hour's work he had moderately satisfied himself;
indeed, several portions of the letter struck him as well composed, and
he felt that they must heighten the reader's interest in