his ideals with the state of things about him. A book frequently in
his hands was Godwin's ~Political Justice~, and when a son had been
born to him he decided to name the child after that favourite
author. In this way, at all events, he could find some expression
for his hot defiance of iniquity.

He paid his income-tax, and felt a savage joy in the privation thus
imposed upon his family. Mrs. Peak could not forgive her husband, and
in this case, though she had but dim appreciation of the point of
honour involved, her censures doubtless fell on Nicholas's
vulnerable spot; it was the perversity of arrogance, at least as
much as honesty, that impelled him to incur taxation. His wife's
perseverance in complaint drove him to stern impatience, and for a
long time the peace of the household suffered.

When the boy Godwin was five years old, the death of his blind aunt
came as a relief to means which were in every sense overtaxed.
Twelve months later, a piece of unprecedented good fortune seemed to
place the Peaks beyond fear of want, and at the same time to supply
Nicholas with a fulfilment of hopeless desires. By the death of Mrs
Peak's brother, they came into possession of a freehold house and
about nine hundred pounds. The property was situated some twelve
miles from the Midland town of Twybridge, and thither they at once
removed. At Twybridge lived Mrs. Peak's elder sister, Miss Cadman;
but between this lady and her nearest kinsfolk there had been but
slight correspondence--the deceased Cadman left her only a couple
of hundred pounds. With capital at command, Nicholas Peak took a
lease of certain fields near his house, and turned farmer. The study
of chemistry had given a special bent to his economic speculations;
he fancied himself endowed with exceptional aptitude for