a rush of hot tears. Down, down--into the
depths of uttermost despondency, of self-pity and self-contempt! Had it
been practicable, he would have fled from the house, leaving its
occupants to think of him as they would; even as, ten years ago, he had
fled from the shame impending over him at Kingsmill. A cowardly
instinct, this; having once acted upon it gave to his whole life a
taint of craven meanness. Mere bluster, all his talk of mental dignity
and uncompromising scorn of superstitions. A weak and idle man, whose
best years were already wasted!

He gazed deliberately at himself in the glass, at his red eyelids and
unsightly lips. Darkness was best; perhaps he might forget his shame
for an hour or two, ere the dawn renewed it. He threw off his garments
heedlessly, extinguished the lamp, and crept into the ready
hiding-place.

Part III

CHAPTER I

'Why are you obstinately silent? [wrote Earwaker, in a letter addressed
to Godwin at his Peckham lodgings]. I take it for granted that you must
by this time be back from your holiday. Why haven't you replied to my
letter of a fortnight ago? Nothing yet from _The Critical_. If you are
really at work as usual, come and see me to-morrow evening, any time
after eight. The posture of my affairs grows dubious; the shadow of
Kenyon thickens about me. In all seriousness I think I shall be driven
from _The Weekly Post_ before long. My quarrels with Runcorn are too
frequent, and his blackguardism keeps more than pace with the times.
Come or write, for I want to know how things go with you.

_Tuissimus_, J.E.E.'

Peak read this at breakfast on a Saturday morning. It was early in
September, and three weeks had elapsed since his return from the west
of England. Upon the autumn had fallen a blight of cold and rainy
weather, which did not enhance the cheerfulness of daily journeying
between Peckham Rye and Rotherhithe. When it was necessary for him to
set forth to the train, he muttered imprecations, for a mood of
inactivity possessed him; he would gladly have stayed in his
comfortable sitting-room, idling over books or only occupied with
languid thought.

In the afternoon he was at liberty to follow his impulse, and this
directed him to the British Museum, whither of late he had several
times resorted as a reader. Among the half-dozen books for which he
applied was one in German, Reusch's _Bibel und Natur_. After a little
dallying, he became absorbed in this work, a