facturer--sparing of words, but with no unkindly face--requested
that Godwin should be sent to see him, and promised to do his best to
be of use. A talk with the boy strengthened his interest. He was
surprised at Godwin's knowledge of chemistry, pleased with his general
intelligence, and in the end offered to make a place for him at the
works, where, though for a year or two his earnings must be small, he
would gain experience likely to be of substantial use to him. Godwin
did not find the proposal distasteful; it brought a change into his
life, and the excitement of novelty; it flattered him with the show of
release from pupilage. To Mr. Moxey's he went.

The hours were not long, and it was understood that his theoretical
studies should continue in the evening. Godwin's home was a very small
house in a monotonous little street; a garret served as bedroom for the
two boys, also as the elder one's laboratory. Servant Mrs. Peak had
none. She managed everything herself, as in the old Greenwich days,
leaving Charlotte free to work at her embroidery. Godwin took turns
with Oliver at blacking the shoes.

As a matter of course the boys accompanied their mother each Sunday
morning to the parish church, and this ceremony was becoming an
insufferable tax on Godwin's patience. It was not only that he hated
the name of religion, and scorned with much fierceness all who came in
sympathetic contact therewith; the loss of time seemed to him an
oppressive injury, especially now that he began to suffer from
restricted leisure. He would not refuse to obey his mother's wish, but
the sullenness of his Sabbatic demeanour made the whole family
uncomfortable. As often as possible he feigned illness. He tried the
effect of dolorous sighs and groans; but Mrs. Peak could not dream of
conceding a point which would have seemed to her the condonation of
deadly sin. 'When I am a man!' muttered Godwin. 'Ah! when I am a man!'

A year had gone by, and the routine to which he was bound began to have
a servile flavour. His mind chafed at subjugation to commercial
interests. Sick of 'sheep and cattle dressings', he grew tired of
chemistry altogether, and presently of physical science in general. His
evenings were given to poetry and history; he took up the classical
schoolbooks again, and found a charm in Latin syntax hitherto
unperceived. It was plain to him now how he had been wronged by the
necessity of leaving school when his education had but just