n had no friends of old standing. At
Greenwich, Nicholas Peak formed no intimacies, nor did a single
associate remain to him from the years of his growth and struggle; his
wife, until the renewal of intercourse with her sister at Twybridge,
had no society whatever beyond her home. A boy reaps advantage from the
half parental kindness of men and women who have watched his growth
from infancy; in general it affects him as a steadying influence,
keeping before his mind the social bonds to which his behaviour owes
allegiance. The only person whom Godwin regarded with feeling akin to
this was Mr. Gunnery, but the geologist found no favour with Mrs. Peak,
and thus he involuntarily helped to widen the gap between the young man
and his relatives. Nor had the intimacies of school time supplied
Godwin with friendships for the years to come; his Twybridge
class-fellows no longer interested him, nor did they care to continue
his acquaintance. One was articled to a solicitor; one was learning the
drug-trade in his father's shop; another had begun to deal in corn; the
rest were scattered about England, as students or salary-earners. The
dominion of the commonplace had absorbed them, all and sundry; they
were the stuff which destiny uses for its every-day purposes, to keep
the world a-rolling.

So that Godwin had no ties which bound him strongly to any district. He
could not call himself a Londoner; for, though born in Westminster, he
had grown to consciousness on the outskirts of Greenwich, and
remembered but dimly some of the London streets, and a few places of
public interest to which his father had taken him. Yet, as a matter of
course, it was to London that his ambition pointed, when he forecast
the future. Where else could he hope for opportunity of notable
advancement? At Twybridge? Impossible to find more than means of
subsistence; his soul loathed such a prospect. At Kingsmill? There was
a slender hope that he might establish a connection with Whitelaw
College, if he devoted himself to laboratory work; but what could come
of that--at all events for many years? London, then? The only
acceptable plan for supporting himself there was to succeed in a Civil
Service competition. That, indeed, seemed the most hopeful direction
for his efforts; a government office might afford him scope, and, he
had heard, would allow him abundant leisure.

Or to go abroad? To enter for the Indian clerkships, and possibly
cleave a wider way than co