 spirit, like the old simple naturalists. Geology did
not come within his sphere.
    »I'm very sorry,« he said, »that I could never care much for it. Don't think
I'm afraid of it - not I! I feel the grandeur of its scope, just as I do in the
case of astronomy; but I have never brought myself to study either science. A
narrowness of mind, no doubt. I can't go into such remote times and regions. I
love the sunlight and the green fields of this little corner of the world - too
well, perhaps: yes, perhaps too well.«
    After one of these walks, he remarked to Mrs. Lilywhite:
    »It's my impression that Mr. Peak has somehow been misled in his choice of a
vocation. I don't think he'll do as a churchman.«
    »Why not, Henry?« asked his wife, with gentle concern, for she still spoke
of Peak's quiet moral force.
    »There's something too restless about him. I doubt whether he has really
made up his mind on any subject whatever. Well, it's not easy to explain what I
feel, but I don't think he will take Orders.«
    Calling at the vicarage one afternoon in September, Godwin found Mrs.
Lilywhite alone. She startled him by saying at once:
    »An old acquaintance of yours was with us yesterday, Mr. Peak.«
    »Who could that be, I wonder?«
    He smiled softly, controlling his impulse to show quite another expression.
    »You remember Mr. Bruno Chilvers?«
    »Oh, yes!«
    There was a constriction in his throat. Struggling to overcome it, he added:
    »But I should have thought he had no recollection of me.«
    »Quite the contrary, I assure you. He is to succeed Mr. Bell of St.
Margaret's, at Christmas; he was down here only for a day or two, and called
upon my husband with a message from an old friend of ours. It appears he used to
know the Warricombes, when they lived at Kingsmill, and he had been to see them
before visiting us; it was there your name was mentioned to him.«
    Godwin had seated himself, and leaned forward, his hands grasping the glove
he had drawn off.
    »We were contemporaries at Whitelaw College,« he observed.
    »So we learnt from him. He spoke of you with the greatest interest; he was
delighted
