Occasions, of course, offered when he might have extended his acquaintance, but they were never of a kind that he cared to use; at best they would only have admitted him to the homes of decent, semi-educated families, and for such society he was altogether unfitted.  The licence of the streets but seldom allured him.  After his twenty-fourth year he was proof against the decoys of venal pleasure, and lived a life of asceticism exceedingly rare in young and lonely men.  When Christian Moxey returned to London and took the house at Notting Hill, which he henceforth occupied together with his sister, a possibility of social intercourse at length appeared.  Indeed it was a substantial gain to sit from time to time at a civilised table, and to converse amid graceful surroundings with people who at all events followed the intellectual current of the day.  Careless hitherto of his personal appearance, he now cultivated an elegance of attire in conformity with his aristocratic instincts, and this habit became fixed.  When next he visited Twybridge, the change in his appearance was generally remarked.  Mrs. Peak naturally understood it as a significant result of his intercourse with Miss Moxey, of whom, as it seemed to her, he spoke with singular reticence.

But Marcella had no charm for Godwin’s imagination, notwithstanding that he presently suspected a warmth of interest on her side which he was far from consciously encouraging.  Nor did he find among his friends any man or woman for whose acquaintance he greatly cared.  The Moxeys had a very small circle, consisting chiefly of intellectual inferiors.  Christian was too indolent to make a figure in society, and his sister suffered from peculiarities of mind and temperament which made it as difficult for her as for Peak himself to form intimate friendships.

When chance encounter brought him into connection with Earwaker, the revival of bygone things was at first doubtfully pleasant.  Earwaker himself, remarkably developed and become a very interesting man, was as welcome an associate as he could have found, but it cost him some effort to dismiss the thought of Andrew Peak’s eating-house, and to accept the friendly tact with which the journalist avoided all hint of unpleasant memories.  That Earwaker should refrain from a single question concerning that abrupt disappearance, nearly ten years ago, sufficiently declared his knowledge of the unspeakable cause, a reflection which often made Godwin writhe.  However, this difficulty was overcome, and the two met very frequently.  For several weeks Godwin enjoyed better spirits than he had known since the first excitement of his life in London faded away.