. Peak moved about the
study, glancing at pictures and books, Earwaker eyeing him the while with not
unfriendly expression. They were sincerely glad to see each other, and when Peak
seated himself it was with an audible sigh of contentment.
    »And what are you doing?« he inquired.
    The journalist gave a brief account of his affairs, and Peak brightened with
pleasure.
    »This is good news. I knew you would shake off the ragamuffins before long.
Give me some of your back numbers, will you? I shall be curious to examine your
new style.«
    »And you? - Come to live in London?«
    »No; I am at Bristol, but only waiting. There's a chance of an analyst's
place in Lancashire; but I may give the preference to an opening I have heard of
in Belgium. Better to go abroad, I think.«
    »Perhaps so.«
    »I have a question to ask you. I suppose you talked about that Critical
article of mine before you received my request for silence?«
    »That's how it was,« Earwaker replied, calmly.
    »Yes; I understood. It doesn't matter.«
    The other puffed at his pipe, and moved uneasily.
    »I am taking for granted,« Peak continued, »that you know how I have spent
my time down in Devonshire.«
    »In outline. Need we trouble about the details?«
    »No. But don't suppose that I should feel any shame in talking to you about
them. That would be a confession of base motive. You and I have studied each
other, and we can exchange thoughts on most subjects with mutual understanding.
You know that I have only followed my convictions to their logical issue. An
opportunity offered of achieving the supreme end to which my life is directed,
and what scruple could stand in my way? We have nothing to do with names and
epithets. Here are the facts of life as I had known it; there is the existence
promised as the reward of successful artifice. To live was to pursue the object
of my being. I could not feel otherwise; therefore, could not act otherwise. You
imagine me defeated, flung back into the gutter.« His words came more quickly,
and the muscles of his face worked under emotion. »It isn't so. I have a great
and reasonable hope. Perhaps I have gained everything I really desired. I could
tell you the strangest story, but there a scruple does interpose. If we live
