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.

His lodgings were in a very ugly street in the ugliest outskirts of
the town; he had to take a long walk through desolate districts
(brick-yard, sordid pasture, degenerate village) before he could
refresh his eyes with the rural scenery which was so great a joy to
him as almost to be a necessity. The immediate vicinage offered
nothing but monotone of grimy, lower middle-class dwellings,
occasionally relieved by a public-house. He occupied two rooms, not
unreasonably clean, and was seldom disturbed by the attentions of
his landlady.

An impartial observer might have wondered at the negligence which
left him to arrange his life as best he could, notwithstanding youth
and utter inexperience. It looked indeed as if there were no one in
the world who cared what became of him. Yet this was merely the
result of his mother's circumstances, and of his own character. Mrs
Peak could do no more than make her small remittances, and therewith
send an occasional admonition regarding his health. She did not, in
fact, conceive the state of things, imagining that the authority and
supervisal of the College extended over her son's daily existence,