ever have such a thing in our
house, Mr. Peak. I have only been told about it.'

Peak smiled gravely, but made no other answer. Then he turned to
Earwaker.

'Where is he?'

'I can't say. Perhaps Mrs. Morton'--

'They tell me he is somewhere in Norfolk,' replied the lady. 'I forget
the town.'

A summons to dinner broke off the conversation. Moxey offered his arm
to the one lady present as guest, and Earwaker did the same courtesy to
the hostess. Mr. Morton, a meditative young man who had been listening
with a smile of indifference, sauntered along in the rear with Godwin
Peak.

At the dinner-table Peak was taciturn, and seemed to be musing on a
disagreeable subject. To remarks, he answered briefly and absently. As
Moxey, Earwaker, and Mrs. Morton kept up lively general talk, this
muteness was not much noticed, but when the ladies had left the room,
and Peak still frowned over his wineglass, the journalist rebuked him.

'What's the matter with you? Don't depress us.'

The other laughed impatiently, and emptied his glass.

'Malkin has come back,' pursued Earwaker. 'He burst in upon me, just as
I was leaving home--as mad as a March hare. You must come and meet him
some evening.'

'As you please.'

Returned to the upper room, Peak seated himself in a shadowy corner,
crossed his legs, thrust his hands into his pockets, and leaned back to
regard a picture on the wall opposite. This attitude gave sufficient
proof of the change that had been wrought in him by the years between
nineteen and nine-and-twenty; even in a drawing-room, he could take his
ease unconcernedly. His face would have led one to suppose him an older
man; it was set in an expression of stern, if not morose,
thoughtfulness.

He had small, hard lips, indifferent teeth (seldom exhibited), a
prominent chin, a long neck; his body was of firm, not ungraceful
build. Society's evening uniform does not allow a man much scope in the
matter of adornments; it was plain, however, that Godwin no longer
scorned the tailor and haberdasher. He wore a suit which confidently
challenged the criticism of experts, and the silk socks visible above
his shoes might have been selected by the most fastidious of worldlings.

When he had sat there for some minutes, his eyes happened to stray
towards Miss Moxey, who was just then without a companion. Her glance
answered to his, and a smile of invitation left him no choice but to
rise and go to a seat beside her.

'You ar