tion which would make him uneasy. In spite
of masculine proverbs, it is the habit of women to suppose that the
other sex regards them confidingly, ingenuously. Marcella was unusually
endowed with analytic intelligence, but in this case she believed what
she hoped. She knew that Peak's confidence in her must be coloured with
contempt, but this mattered little so long as he paid her the
compliment of feeling sure that she was superior to ignoble
temptations. Many a woman would behave with treacherous malice. It was
in her power to expose him, to confound all his schemes, for she knew
the authorship of that remarkable paper in _The Critical Review_.
Before receiving Peak's injunction of secrecy, Earwaker had talked of
'The New Sophistry' with Moxey and with Malkin; the request came too
late. In her interview with Godwin at the Exeter hotel, she had not
even hinted at this knowledge, partly because she was unconscious that
Peak imagined the affair a secret between himself and Earwaker, partly
because she thought it unworthy of her even to seem to threaten. It
gratified her, however, to feel that he was at her mercy, and the
thought preoccupied her for many days.

Passion which has the intellect on its side is more easily endured than
that which offers sensual defiance to all reasoning, but on the other
hand it lasts much longer. Marcella was not consumed by her emotions;
she often thought calmly, coldly, of the man she loved. Yet he was
seldom long out of her mind, and the instigation of circumstances at
times made her suffering intense. Such an occasion was her first
meeting with Sidwell Warricombe, which took place at the Walworths', in
London. Down in Devonshire she had learnt that a family named
Warricombe were Peak's intimate friends; nothing more than this, for
indeed no one was in a position to tell her more. Wakeful jealousy
caused her to fix upon the fact as one of significance; Godwin's
evasive manner when she questioned him confirmed her suspicions; and as
soon as she was brought face to face with Sidwell, suspicion became
certainty. She knew at once that Miss Warricombe was the very person
who would be supremely attractive to Godwin Peak.

An interval of weeks, and again she saw the face that in the meantime
had been as present to her imagination as Godwin's own features. This
time she conversed at some length with Miss Warricombe. Was it merely a
fancy that the beautiful woman looked at her, spoke to her, with