 prospect of being in London.«
    »Will you sit down? You can stay for a few minutes?«
    He seated himself awkwardly. Now that he was in Marcella's presence, he felt
that he had acted unaccountably in giving occasion for another scene between
them which could only end as painfully as that at Exeter. Her emotion grew
evident; he could not bear to meet the look she had fixed upon him.
    »I want to speak of what happened in this house about Christmas time,« she
resumed. »But I must know first what you have been told.«
    »What have you been told?« he replied, with an uneasy smile. »How do you
know that anything which happened here had any importance for me?«
    »I don't know that it had. But I felt sure that Mr. Warricombe meant to
speak to you about it.«
    »Yes, he did.«
    »But did he tell you the exact truth? Or were you led to suppose that I had
broken my promise to you?«
    Unwilling to introduce any mention of Sidwell, Peak preferred to simplify
the story by attributing to Buckland all the information he had gathered.
    »I understood,« he replied, »that Warricombe had come here in the hope of
learning more about me, and that certain facts came out in general conversation.
What does it matter how he learned what he did? From the day when he met you
down in Devonshire, it was of course inevitable that the truth should sooner or
later come out. He always suspected me.«
    »But I want you to know,« said Marcella, »that I had no willing part in it.
I promised you not to speak even to my brother, and I should never have done so
but that Christian somehow met Mr. Warricombe, and heard him talk of you. Of
course he came to me in astonishment, and for your own interest I thought it
best to tell Christian what I knew. When Mr. Warricombe came here, neither
Christian nor I would have enlightened him about - about your past. It happened
most unfortunately that Mr. Malkin was present, and he it was who began to speak
of the Critical article - and other things. I was powerless to prevent it.«
    »Why trouble about it? I quite believe your account.«
    »You do believe it? You know I would not have injured you?«
    »I am sure you had no wish to,« Godwin replied, in as unsentimental a tone
as possible. And, he
