It being customary for the regular students of Whitelaw to graduate at London University, Peak passed his matriculation, and worked on for the preliminary test then known as First B.A.  In the meanwhile he rose steadily, achieving distinction in the College.  The more observant of his teachers remarked him even where he fell short of academic triumph, and among his fellow-students he had the name of a stern ‘sweater’, one not easily beaten where he had set his mind on excelling.  He was not generally liked, for his mood appeared unsocial, and a repelling arrogance was sometimes felt in his talk.  No doubt—­said the more fortunate young men—­he came from a very poor home, and suffered from the narrowness of his means.  They noticed that he did not subscribe to the College Union, and that he could never join in talk regarding the diversions of the town.  His two or three intimates were chosen from among those contemporaries who read hard and dressed poorly.

The details of Godwin’s private life were noteworthy.  Accustomed hitherto to a domestic circle, at Kingsmill he found himself isolated, and it was not easy for him to surrender all at once the. comforts of home.  For a time he felt as though his ambition were a delinquency which entailed the punishment of loneliness.  Nor did his relations with Sir Job Whitelaw tend to mitigate this feeling.  In his first interview with the Baronet, Godwin showed to little advantage.  A deadly bashfulness forbade him to be natural either in attitude or speech.  He felt his dependence in a way he had not foreseen; the very clothes he wore, then fresh from the tailor’s, seemed to be the gift of charity, and their stiffness shamed him.  A man of the world, Sir Job could make allowance for these defects.  He understood that the truest kindness would be to leave a youth such as this to the forming influences of the College.  So Godwin barely had a glimpse of Lady Whitelaw in her husband’s study, and thereafter for many months he saw nothing of his benefactors.  Subsequently he was twice invited to interviews with Sir Job, who talked with kindness and commendation.  Then came the Baronet’s death.  Godwin received an assurance that this event would be no check upon his career, but he neither saw nor heard directly from Lady Whitelaw.

Not a house in Kingsmill opened hospitable doors to the lonely student; nor was anyone to blame for this.  With no family had he friendly acquaintance.  When, towards the end of his second year, he grew sufficiently intimate with Buckland Warricombe to walk out with him to Thornhaw, it could be nothing more than a scarcely welcome exception to the rule of solitude.  Impossible for him to cultivate the friendship of such people as the Warricombes, with their large and joyous scheme of life.  Only at a hearth where homeliness and cordiality united to unthaw his proud reserve could Godwin perchance have found the companionship he needed.  Many such homes existed in Kingsmill, but no kindly fortune led the young man within the sphere of their warmth.