, with such show of
candour, against a suspicion precisely the opposite of that likely to be
entertained by the listener, succeeded in disarming Warricombe; he looked up
with a smile of reassurance, and spoke encouragingly.
    »About the practical details I don't think you need have any anxiety. It
isn't every day that the Church of England gets such a recruit. Let me suggest
that you have a talk with my father.«
    Peak reflected on the proposal, and replied to it with grave thoughtfulness:
    »That's very kind of you, but I should have a difficulty in asking Mr.
Warricombe's advice. I'm afraid I must go on in my own way for a time. It will
be a few months, I daresay, before I can release myself from my engagements in
London.«
    »But I am to understand that your mind is really made up?«
    »Oh, quite!«
    »Well, no doubt we shall have opportunities of talking. We must meet in
town, if possible. You have excited my curiosity, and I can't help hoping you'll
let me see a little further into your mind some day. When I first got hold of
Newman's Apologia, I began to read it with the utmost eagerness, flattering
myself that now at length I should understand how a man of brains could travel
such a road. I was horribly disappointed, and not a little enraged, when I found
that he began by assuming the very beliefs I thought he was going to justify. In
you I shall hope for more logic.«
    »Newman is incapable of understanding such an objection,« said Peak, with a
look of amusement.
    »But you are not.«
    The dialogue grew chatty. When they exchanged good-night, Peak fancied that
the pressure of Buckland's hand was less fervent than at their meeting, but his
manner no longer seemed to indicate distrust. Probably the agnostic's mood was
one of half-tolerant disdain.
    Godwin turned the key in his bedroom door, and strayed aimlessly about. He
was fatigued, but the white, fragrant bed did not yet invite him; a turbulence
in his brain gave warning that it would be long before he slept. He wound up his
watch; the hands pointed to twelve. Chancing to come before the mirror, he saw
that he was unusually pale, and that his eyes had a swollen look.
    The profound stillness was oppressive to him; he started nervously at an
undefined object in a dim corner, and went nearer to
