iscovery now recognised
and chronicled. Though his sympathy was genuine enough, Godwin
struggled against an uneasy sense of manifesting excessive
appreciation. Never oblivious of himself, he could not utter the
simplest phrase of admiration without criticising its justice, its
tone. And at present it behoved him to bear in mind that he was
conversing with no half-bred sciolist. Mr Warricombe obviously had his
share of human weakness, but he was at once a gentleman and a student
of well-stored mind; insincerity must be very careful if it would not
jar upon his refined ear. So Godwin often checked himself in the
utterance of what might sound too much like flattery. A young man
talking with one much older, a poor man in dialogue with a wealthy,
must under any circumstances guard his speech; for one of Godwin's
aggressive idiosyncrasy the task of discretion had peculiar
difficulties, and the attitude he had assumed at luncheon still further
complicated the operations of his mind. Only at moments could he speak
in his true voice, and silence meant for the most part a studious
repression of much he would naturally have uttered.

Resurgent envy gave him no little trouble. On entering the room, he
could not but exclaim to himself, 'How easy for a man to do notable
work amid such surroundings! If I were but thus equipped for
investigation!' And as often as his eyes left a particular object to
make a general survey, the same thought burned in him. He feared lest
it should be legible on his countenance.

Taking a pamphlet from the table, Mr. Warricombe, with a humorous
twinkle in his eyes, inquired whether Peak read German; the answer
being affirmative:

'Naturally,' he rejoined, 'you could hardly have neglected so important
a language. I, unfortunately, didn't learn it in my youth, and I have
never had perseverance enough to struggle with it since. Something led
me to take down this brochure the other day--an old attempt of mine to
write about the weathering of rocks. It was printed in '76, and no
sooner had it seen the light than friends of mine wanted to know what I
meant by appropriating, without acknowledgement, certain facts quite
recently pointed out by Professor Pfaff of Erlangen! Unhappily,
Professor Pfaff's results were quite unknown to me, and I had to get
them translated. The coincidences, sure enough, were very noticeable.
Just before you came in, I was reviving that old discomfiture.'

Peak, in glancing over the