.
    A result of the family's removal first from London to the farm, and then
into Twybridge, was that Godwin 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
