'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.' 'Contented?' She smiled incredulously. 'For how long?' 'Who can say? I have lost the habit of looking far forward.' Marcella kept silence so long that he concluded she had nothing more to say to him. It was an opportunity for taking leave without emotional stress, and he rose from his chair. 'Don't go yet,' she said at once. 'It wasn't only this that I'---- Her voice was checked. 'Can I be of any use to you in Bristol?' Peak asked, determined to avoid the trial he saw approaching. 'There is something more I wanted to say,' she pursued, seeming not to hear him. 'You pretend to be contented, but I know that is impossible. You talk of going back to a dull routine of toil, when what you most desire is freedom. I want--if I can--to help you.' Again she failed to command her voice. Godwin raised his eyes, and was astonished at the transformation she had suddenly undergone. Her face, instead of being colourless and darkly vehement, had changed to a bright warmth, a smiling radiance such as would have become a happy girl. His look seemed to give her courage.