’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 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.’