 added after a moment's pause, »Was this what you were so
anxious to tell me?«
    »Yes. Chiefly that.«
    »Let me put your mind at rest,« pursued the other, with quiet friendliness.
»I am disposed to turn optimist; everything has happened just as it should have
done. Warricombe relieved me from a false position. If he hadn't done so, I must
very soon have done it for myself. Let us rejoice that things work together for
such obvious good. A few more lessons of this kind, and we shall acknowledge
that the world is the best possible.«
    He laughed, but the tense expression of Marcella's features did not relax.
    »You say you are living in Bristol?«
    »For a time.«
    »Have you abandoned Exeter?«
    The word implied something that Marcella could not utter more plainly. Her
face completed the question.
    »And the clerical career as well,« he answered.
    But he knew that she sought more than this, and his voice again broke the
silence.
    »Perhaps you have heard that already? Are you in communication with Miss
Moorhouse?«
    She shook her head.
    »But probably Warricombe has told your brother -?«
    »What?«
    »Oh, of his success in ridding Exeter of my objectionable presence.«
    »Christian hasn't seen him again, nor have I.«
    »I only wish to assure you that I have suffered no injury. My experiment was
doomed to failure. What led me to it, how I regarded it, we won't discuss; I am
as little prepared to do so now as when we talked at Exeter. That chapter in my
life is happily over. As soon as I am established again in a place like that I
had at Rotherhithe, I shall be quite contented.«
    »Contented?« She smiled incredulously. »For how long?«
    »Who can say? I have lost the habit of looking far forward.«
    Marcella kept silence so long that he concluded she had nothing more to say
to him. It was an opportunity for taking leave without emotional stress, and he
rose from his chair.
    »Don't go yet,« she said at once. »It wasn't only this that I« -
    Her voice was checked.
    »Can I be of any use to you in Bristol?« Peak asked, determined to avoid the
trial he saw approaching.
    »There is something more I wanted to say,« she pursued, seeming not to hear
