s Moxey?'

'I must forgive you for asking that,' Peak replied, coldly. 'It may
well seem to you that I have neither honour nor delicacy left.'

There had come a flush on her cheeks. For some moments she was absorbed
in thought.

'It seems strange to you,' he continued at length, 'that I could ask
Miss Moxey to share such a secret. But you must understand on what
terms we were--she and I. We have known each other for several years.
She has a man's mind, and I have always thought of her in much the same
way as of my male companions.--Your brother has told you about her,
perhaps?'

'I have met her in London.'

'Then that will make my explanation easier,' said Godwin, disregarding
the anxious questions that at once suggested themselves to him. 'Well,
I misled her, or tried to do so. I allowed her to suppose that I was
sincere in my new undertakings, and that I didn't wish--Oh!' he
exclaimed, suddenly breaking off, 'Why need I go any further in
confession? It must be as miserable for you to hear as for me to speak.
Let us make an end of it. I can't understand how I have escaped
detection so long.'

Remembering every detail of Buckland's story, Sidwell felt that she had
possibly been unjust in representing the Moxeys as her brother's
authority; in strictness, she ought to mention that a friend of theirs
was the actual source of information. But she could not pursue the
subject; like Godwin, she wished to put it out of her mind. What
question could there be of honour or dishonour in the case of a person
such as Miss Moxey, who had consented to be party to a shameful deceit?
Strangely, it was a relief to her to have heard this. The moral
repugnance which threatened to estrange her from Godwin, was now
directed in another quarter; unduly restrained by love, it found scope
under the guidance of jealousy.

'You have been trying to adapt yourself,' she said, 'to a world for
which you are by nature unfitted. Your place is in the new order; by
turning back to the old, you condemned yourself to a wasted life. Since
we have been in London, I have come to understand better the great
difference between modern intellectual life and that which we lead in
these far-away corners. You must go out among your equals, go and take
your part with men who are working for the future.'

Peak rose with a gesture of passionate impatience.

'What is it to me, new world or old? My world is where _you_ are. I
have no life of my own; I think on