'I have hurried up from Wrotham,' pursued the apologist. 'Did I tell
you, Moxey, that I had taken rooms down there, to be able to spend a
day or two near my friends the Jacoxes occasionally? On the way here, I
looked in at Staple Inn, but Earwaker is away somewhere. What an odd
thing that people will go off without letting one know! It's such
common ill-luck of mine to find people gone away--I'm really astonished
to find you at home, Miss Moxey.'

Marcella looked at Warricombe and laughed.

'You must understand that subjectively,' she said, with nervous gaiety
which again excited her brother's surprise. 'Please don't be
discouraged by it from coming to see us again; I am very rarely out in
the afternoon.'

'But,' persisted Malkin, 'it's precisely my ill fortune to hit on those
rare moments when people _are_ out!--Now, I never meet acquaintances in
the streets of London; but, if I happen to be abroad, as likely as not
I encounter the last person I should expect to find. Why, you remember,
I rush over to America for scarcely a week's stay, and there I come
across a man who has disappeared astonishingly from the ken of all his
friends!'

Christian looked at Marcella. She was leaning forward, her lips
slightly parted, her eyes wide as if in gaze at something that
fascinated her. He saw that she spoke, but her voice was hardly to be
recognised.

'Are you quite sure of that instance, Mr. Malkin?'

'Yes, I feel quite sure, Miss Moxey. Undoubtedly it was Peak!'

Buckland Warricombe, who had been waiting for a chance of escape,
suddenly wore a look of interest. He rapidly surveyed the trio.
Christian, somewhat out of countenance, tried to answer Malkin in a
tone of light banter.

'It happens, my dear fellow, that Peak has not left England since we
lost sight of him.'

'What? He has been heard of? Where is he then?'

'Mr. Warricombe can assure you that he has been living for a year at
Exeter.'

Buckland, perceiving that he had at length come upon something
important to his purposes, smiled genially.

'Yes, I have had the pleasure of seeing Peak down in Devon from time to
time.'

'Then it was really an illusion!' cried Malkin. 'I was too hasty. Yet
that isn't a charge that can be often brought against me, I think. Does
Earwaker know of this?'

'He has lately heard,' replied Christian, who in vain sought for a
means of checking Malkin's loquacity. 'I thought he might have told
you.'

'Certainly not. The thing