was wakeful for hours.

The next morning he attempted to work for his approaching
examination, but with small result. It had begun to be very doubtful
to him whether he should 'go up' at all, and this uncertainty
involved so great a change in all his prospects that he could not
command the mental calm necessary for study. After dinner he went
out with unsettled purpose. He would gladly have conversed with Mr
Gunnery, but the old people were just now on a stay with relatives
in Bedfordshire, and their return might be delayed for another week.
Perhaps it behoved him to go and see Mr. Moxey, but he was indisposed
to visit the works, and if he went to the house this evening he
would encounter the five daughters, who, like all women who did not
inspire him with admiration, excited his bashful dislike. At length
he struck off into the country and indulged restless thoughts in
places where no one could observe him.

A result of the family's removal first from London to the farm, and
then into Twybridge, was that Godwin had no friends of old standing.
At Greenwich, Nicholas Peak formed no intimacies, nor did a single
associate remain to him from the years of his growth and struggle;
his wife, until the renewal of intercourse with her sister at
Twybridge, had no society whatever beyond her home. A boy reaps
advantage from the half parental kindness of men and women who have
watched his growth from infancy; in general it affects him as a
steadying influence, keeping before his mind the social bonds to
which his behaviour owes allegiance. The only person whom Godwin
regarded with feeling akin to this was Mr. Gunnery, but the geologist
found no favour with Mrs. Peak, and thus he involuntarily helped to
widen the gap between the young man and his relatives. Nor had the