 have been selected by the most fastidious of
worldlings.
    When he had sat there for some minutes, his eyes happened to stray towards
Miss Moxey, who was just then without a companion. Her glance answered to his,
and a smile of invitation left him no choice but to rise and go to a seat beside
her.
    »You are meditative this evening,« she said, in a voice subdued below its
ordinary note.
    »Not very fit for society, to tell the truth,« Godwin answered, carelessly.
»One has such moods, you know. But how would you take it if, at the last moment,
I sent a telegram, Please excuse me. Don't feel able to talk?«
    »You don't suppose I should be offended?«
    »Certainly you would.«
    »Then you know less of me than I thought.«
    Her eyes wandered about the room, their smile betokening an uneasy
self-consciousness.
    »Christian tells me,« she continued, »that you are going to take your
holiday in Cornwall.«
    »I thought of it. But perhaps I shan't leave town at all. It wouldn't be
worth while, if I go abroad at the end of the year.«
    »Abroad?« Marcella glanced at him. »What scheme is that?«
    »Haven't I mentioned it? I want to go to South America and the Pacific
islands. Earwaker has a friend, who has just come back from travel in the
tropics; the talk about it has half decided me to leave England. I have been
saving money for years to that end.«
    »You never spoke of it - to me,« Marcella replied, turning a bracelet on her
wrist. »Should you go alone?«
    »Of course. I couldn't travel in company. You know how impossible it would
be for me to put up with the moods and idiosyncrasies of other men.«
    There was a quiet arrogance in his tone. The listener still smiled, but her
fingers worked nervously.
    »You are not so unsocial as you pretend,« she remarked, without looking at
him.
    »Pretend! I make no pretences of any kind,« was his scornful answer.
    »You are ungracious this evening.«
    »Yes - and can't hide it.«
    »Don't try to, I beg. But at least tell me what troubles you.«
    »That's impossible,« Peak replied, drily.
    »Then friendship goes for nothing,« said Marcella
