early married life
enabled her to make more than the most of the pittance at her disposal.
    Miss Cadman was a woman of active mind, something of a busy-body - dogmatic,
punctilious in her claims to respect, proud of the acknowledgment by her
acquaintances that she was not as other tradespeople; her chief weakness was a
fanatical ecclesiasticism, the common blight of English womanhood. Circumstances
had allowed her a better education than generally falls to women of that
standing, and in spite of her shop she succeeded in retaining the friendship of
certain ladies long ago her schoolfellows. Among these were the Misses Lumb -
middle-aged sisters, who lived at Twybridge on a small independence, their time
chiefly devoted to the support of the Anglican Church. An eldest Miss Lumb had
been fortunate enough to marry that growing potentate of the Midlands, Mr. Job
Whitelaw. Now Lady Whitelaw, she dwelt at Kingsmill, but her sisters frequently
enjoyed the honour of entertaining her, and even Miss Cadman the milliner
occasionally held converse with the baronet's wife. In this way it came to pass
that the Widow Peak and her children were brought under the notice of persons
who sooner or later might be of assistance to them.
    Abounding in emphatic advice, Miss Cadman easily persuaded her sister that
Godwin must go to school for at least two years longer. The boys had been at a
boarding-school twenty miles away from their country home; it would be better
for them now to be put under the care of some Twybridge teacher - such an one as
Miss Cadman's acquaintances could recommend. For her own credit, the milliner
was anxious that these nephews of hers should not be running about the town as
errand-boys or the like, and with prudence there was no necessity for such
degradation. An uncommon lad like Godwin (she imagined him named after the
historic earl) must not be robbed of his fair chance in life; she would gladly
spare a little money for his benefit; he was a boy to repay such expenditure.
    Indeed it seemed probable. Godwin devoured books, and had a remarkable
faculty for gaining solid information on any subject that took his fancy. What
might be the special bent of his mind one could not yet discover. He read poetry
with precocious gusto, but at the same time his aptitude for scientific pursuits
was strongly marked. In botany, chemistry, physics, he made progress which the
people about him, including his schoolmaster, were incapable of appreciating;
and already the collection of books left by his father, most of them out of
date, failed to satisfy his curiosity.