‘Why are you obstinately silent? [wrote Earwaker, in a letter addressed to Godwin at his Peckham lodgings]. I take it for granted that you must by this time be back from your holiday. Why haven’t you replied to my letter of a fortnight ago? Nothing yet from The Critical. If you are really at work as usual, come and see me tomorrow evening, any time after eight. The posture of my affairs grows dubious; the shadow of Kenyon thickens about me. In all seriousness I think I shall be driven from The Weekly Post before long. My quarrels with Runcorn are too frequent, and his blackguardism keeps more than pace with the times. Come or write, for I want to know how things go with you.

Tuissimus, J.E.E.’

Peak read this at breakfast on a Saturday morning. It was early in September, and three weeks had elapsed since his return from the west of England. Upon the autumn had fallen a blight of cold and rainy weather, which did not enhance the cheerfulness of daily journeying between Peckham Rye and Rotherhithe. When it was necessary for him to set forth to the train, he muttered imprecations, for a mood of inactivity possessed him; he would gladly have stayed in his comfortable sitting-room, idling over books or only occupied with languid thought.

In the afternoon he was at liberty to follow his impulse, and this directed him to the British Museum, whither of late he had several times resorted as a reader. Among the half-dozen books for which he applied was one in German, Reusch’s Bibel und Natur. After a little dallying, he became absorbed in this work, and two or three hours passed before its hold on his attention slackened. He seldom changed his position; the volume was propped against others, and he sat bending forward, his arms folded upon the desk. When he was thus deeply engaged, his face had a hard, stern aspect; if by chance his eye wandered for a moment, its look seemed to express resentment of interruption.

At length he threw himself back with a sudden yielding to weariness, crossed his legs, sank together in the chair, and for half-an-hour brooded darkly. A fit of yawning admonished him that it was time to quit the atmosphere of study. He betook himself to a restaurant in the Strand, and thence about eight o’clock made his way to Staple Inn, where the journalist gave him cheerful welcome.

‘Day after day I have meant to write,’ thus he excused himself. ‘But I had really nothing to say.’

‘You don’t look any better for your holiday,’ Earwaker remarked.

‘Holiday? Oh, I had forgotten all about it. When do you go?’

‘The situation is comical. I feel sure that if I leave town, my connection with the Post will come to an end. I shall have a note from Runcorn saying that we had better take this opportunity of terminating my engagement. On the whole I should be glad, yet I can’t make up my mind to be ousted by Kenyon—that’s what it means. They want to get me away, but I stick on, postponing holiday from week to week. Runcorn can’t decide to send me about my business, yet every leader I write enrages him. But for Kenyon, I should gain my point; I feel sure of it. It’s one of those cases in which homicide would be justified by public interest. If Kenyon gets my place, the paper becomes at once an organ of ruffiandom, the delight of the blackguardry.’

‘How’s the circulation?’ inquired Peak.

‘Pretty sound; that adds to the joke. This series of stories by Doubleday has helped us a good deal, and my contention is, if we can keep financially right by help of this kind, why not make a little sacrifice for the sake of raising our political tone? Runcorn won’t see it; he listens eagerly to Kenyon’s assurance that we might sell several thousand more by striking the true pot-house note.’

‘Then pitch the thing over! Wash your hands, and go to cleaner work.’

‘The work I am doing is clean enough,’ replied Earwaker. ‘Let me have my way, and I can make the paper a decent one and a useful one. I shan’t easily find another such chance.’

‘Your idealism has a strong root,’ said Godwin, rather contemptuously. ‘I half envy you. There must be a distinct pleasure in believing that any intellectual influence will exalt the English democracy.’

‘I’m not sure that I do believe it, but I enjoy the experiment. The chief pleasure, I suppose, is in fighting Runcorn and Kenyon.’

‘They are too strong for you, Earwaker. They have the spirit of the age to back them up.’

The journalist became silent; he smiled, but the harassment of conflict marked his features.

‘I hear nothing about “The New Sophistry”,’ he remarked, when Godwin had begun to examine some books that lay on the table. ‘Dolby has the trick of keeping manuscripts a long time. Everything that seems at the first glance tolerable, he sends to the printer, then muses over it at his leisure. Probably your paper is in type.’

‘I don’t care a rap whether it is or not. What do you think of this book of Oldwinkle’s?’

He was holding a volume of humorous stories, which had greatly taken the fancy of the public.

‘It’s uncommonly good,’ replied the journalist, laughing. ‘I had a prejudice against the fellow, but he has overcome me. It’s more than good farce—something like really strong humour here and there.’

‘I quite believe it,’ said Peak, ‘yet I couldn’t read a page. Whatever the mob enjoys is at once spoilt for me, however good I should otherwise think it. I am sick of seeing and hearing the man’s name.’

Earwaker shook his head in deprecation.

‘Narrow, my boy. One must be able to judge and enjoy impartially.’

‘I know it, but I shall never improve. This book seems to me to have a bad smell; it looks mauled with dirty fingers. I despise Oldwinkle for his popularity. To make them laugh, and to laugh with them—pah!’

They debated this point for some time, Peak growing more violent, though his friend preserved a smiling equanimity. A tirade of virulent contempt, in which Godwin exhibited all his powers of savage eloquence, was broken by a visitor’s summons at the door.

‘Here’s Malkin,’ said the journalist; ‘you’ll see each other at last.’

Peak could not at once command himself to the look and tone desirable in meeting a stranger; leaning against the mantelpiece, he gazed with a scowl of curiosity at the man who presented himself, and when he shook hands, it was in silence. But Malkin made speech from the others unnecessary for several minutes. With animated voice and gesture, he poured forth apologies for his failure to keep the appointment of six or seven weeks ago.

‘Only the gravest call of duty could have kept me away, I do assure you! No doubt Earwaker has informed you of the circumstances. I telegraphed—I think I telegraphed; didn’t I, Earwaker?’

‘I have some recollection of a word or two of scant excuse,’ replied the journalist.

‘But I implore you to consider the haste I was in,’ cried Malkin; ‘not five minutes, Mr. Peak, to book, to register luggage, to do everything; not five minutes, I protest! But here we are at last. Let us talk! Let us talk!’

He seated himself with an air of supreme enjoyment, and began to cram the bowl of a large pipe from a bulky pouch.

‘How stands the fight with Kenyon and Co.?’ he cried, as soon as the tobacco was glowing.

Earwaker briefly repeated what he had told Peak.

‘Hold out! No surrender and no compromise! What’s your opinion, Mr Peak, on the abstract question? Is a popular paper likely, or not, to be damaged in its circulation by improvement of style and tone—within the limits of discretion?’

‘I shouldn’t be surprised if it were,’ Peak answered, drily.

‘I’m afraid you’re right. There’s no use in blinking truths, however disagreeable. But, for Earwaker, that isn’t the main issue. What he has to do is to assert himself. Every man’s first duty is to assert himself. At all events, this is how I regard the matter. I am all for individualism, for the development of one’s personality at whatever cost. No compromise on points of faith! Earwaker has his ideal of journalistic duty, and in a fight with fellows like Runcorn and Kenyon he must stand firm as a rock.’

‘I can’t see that he’s called upon to fight at all,’ said Peak. ‘He’s in a false position; let him get out of it.’

‘A false position? I can’t see that. No man better fitted than Earwaker to raise the tone of Radical journalism. Here’s a big Sunday newspaper practically in his hands; it seems to me that the circumstances give him a grand opportunity of making his force felt. What are we all seeking but an opportunity for striking out with effect?’

Godwin listened with a sceptical smile, and made answer in slow, careless tones.

‘Earwaker happens to be employed and paid by certain capitalists to increase the sale of their paper.’

‘My dear sir!’ cried the other, bouncing upon his seat. ‘How can you take such a view? A great newspaper surely cannot be regarded as a mere source of income. These capitalists declare that they have at heart the interests of the working classes; so has Earwaker, and he is far better able than they to promote those interests. His duty is to apply their money to the best use, morally speaking. If he were lukewarm in the matter, I should be the first to advise his retirement; but this fight is entirely congenial to him. I trust he will hold his own to the last possible moment.’

‘You must remember,’ put in the journalist, with a look of amusement, ‘that Peak has no sympathy with Radicalism.’

‘I lament it, but that does not affect my argument. If you were a high Tory, I should urge you just as strongly to assert yourself. Surely you agree with this point of mine, Mr. Peak? You admit that a man must develop whatever strength is in him.’

‘I’m not at all sure of that.’

Malkin fixed himself sideways in the chair, and examined his collocutor’s face earnestly. He endeavoured to subdue his excitement to the tone of courteous debate, but the words that at length escaped him were humorously blunt.

‘Then of what are you sure?’

‘Of nothing.’

‘Now we touch bottom!’ cried Malkin. ‘Philosophically speaking, I agree with you. But we have to live our lives, and I suppose we must direct ourselves by some conscious principle.’

‘I don’t see the necessity,’ Peak replied, still in an impassive tone. ‘We may very well be guided by circumstances as they arise. To be sure, there’s a principle in that, but I take it you mean something different.’

‘Yes I do. I hold that the will must direct circumstances, not receive its impulse from them. How, then, are we to be guided? What do you set before yourself?’

‘To get through life with as much satisfaction and as little pain as possible.’

‘You are a hedonist, then. Well and good! Then that is your conscious principle’—

‘No, it isn’t.’

‘How am I to understand you?’

‘By recognising that a man’s intellectual and moral principles as likely as not tend to anything but his happiness.’

‘I can’t admit it!’ exclaimed Malkin, leaping from his chair. ‘What is happiness?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Earwaker, what is happiness? What is happiness?’

‘I really don’t know,’ answered the journalist, mirthfully.

‘This is trifling with a grave question. We all know perfectly well that happiness is the conscious exertion of individual powers. Why is there so much suffering under our present social system? Because the majority of men are crushed to a dead level of mechanical toil, with no opportunity of developing their special faculties. Give a man scope, and happiness is put within his reach.’

‘What do you mean by scope?’ inquired Godwin.

‘Scope? Scope? Why, room to expand. The vice of our society is hypocrisy; it comes of over-crowding. When a man isn’t allowed to be himself, he takes refuge in a mean imitation of those other men who appear to be better off. That was what sent me off to South America. I got into politics, and found that I was in danger of growing dishonest, of compromising, and toadying. In the wilderness, I found myself again.—Do you seriously believe that happiness can be obtained by ignoring one’s convictions?’

He addressed the question to both, snuffing the air with head thrown back.

‘What if you have no convictions?’ asked Peak.

‘Then you are incapable of happiness in any worthy sense! You may graze, but you will never feast.’

The listeners joined in laughter, and Malkin, after a moment’s hesitation, allowed his face to relax in good-humoured sympathy.

‘Now look here!’ he cried. ‘You—Earwaker; suppose you sent conscience to the devil, and set yourself to please Runcorn by increasing the circulation of your paper by whatever means. You would flourish, undoubtedly. In a short time you would be chief editor, and your pockets would burst with money. But what about your peace of mind? What about happiness?’

‘Why, I’m disposed to agree with Peak,’ answered the journalist. ‘If I could take that line, I should be a happier man than conscientiousness will ever make me.’

Malkin swelled with indignation.

‘You don’t mean it! You are turning a grave argument into jest!—Where’s my hat? Where the devil is my hat? Send for me again when you are disposed to talk seriously.’

He strode towards the door, but Earwaker arrested him with a shout.

‘You’re leaving your pipe!’

‘So I am. Where is it?—Did I tell you where I bought this pipe?’

‘No. What’s the wood?’

On the instant Malkin fell into a cheerful vein of reminiscence. In five minutes he was giving a rapturous description of tropical scenes, laughing joyously as he addressed now one now the other of his companions.

‘I hear you have a mind to see those countries, Mr. Peak,’ he said at length. ‘If you care for a travelling companion—rather short-tempered, but you’ll pardon that—pray give me the preference. I should enjoy above all things to travel with a man of science.’

‘It’s very doubtful whether I shall ever get so far,’ Godwin replied, musingly.

And, as he spoke, he rose to take leave. Earwaker’s protest that it was not yet ten o’clock did not influence him.

‘I want to reflect on the meaning of happiness,’ he said, extending his hand to Malkin; and, in spite of the smile, his face had a sombre cast.

The two who were left of course discussed him.

‘You won’t care much for Peak,’ said Earwaker. ‘He and I suit each other, because there’s a good deal of indifferentism in both of us. Moral earnestness always goes against the grain with him; I’ve noticed it frequently.’

‘I’m sorry I spoke so dogmatically. It wasn’t altogether good manners. Suppose I write him a short letter, just expressing my regret for having been led away’—

‘Needless, needless,’ laughed the journalist. ‘He thinks all the better of you for your zeal. But happiness is a sore point with him; few men, I should think, have known less of it. I can’t imagine any circumstances which would make him thoroughly at peace with himself and the world.’

‘Poor fellow! You can see something of that in his face. Why doesn’t he get married?’

‘A remarkable suggestion!—By the way, why don’t you?’.

‘My dear boy, there’s nothing I wish more, but it’s a business of such fearful precariousness. I’m one of those men whom marriage will either make or ruin. You know my characteristics; the slightest check upon my independence, and all’s up with me. The woman I marry must be perfectly reasonable, perfectly good-tempered; she must have excellent education, and every delicacy of breeding. Where am I to find this paragon?’

‘Society is open to you.’

‘True, but I am not open to society. I don’t take kindly to the people of my own class. No, I tell you what—my only chance of getting a suitable wife is to train some very young girl for the purpose. Don’t misunderstand me, for heaven’s sake! I mean that I must make a friendship with some schoolgirl in whose education I can have a voice, whose relatives will permit me to influence her mind and develop her character. What do you think of this idea?’

‘Not bad, but it demands patience.’

‘And who more patient than I? But let us talk of that poor Mrs. Jacox and her girls. You feel that you know them pretty well from my letters, don’t you? Nothing more monstrous can be imagined than the treatment to which this poor woman has been subjected! I couldn’t have believed that such dishonesty and brutality were possible in English families of decent position. Her husband deserted her, her brother robbed her, her sister-inlaw libelled her,—the whole story is nauseating!’

‘You’re quite sure that she tells you the truth?’

Malkin glared with sudden resentment.

‘The truth? What! you also desire to calumniate her? For shame, Earwaker! A poor widow toiling to support herself in a foreign country, with two children dependent on her.’

‘Yes, yes, yes; but you seem to know very little of her.’

‘I know her perfectly, and all her circumstances!’

Mrs. Jacox was the mother of the two girls whom Malkin had escorted to Rouen, after an hour or so of all but casual acquaintance. She and her history had come in a very slight degree under the notice of certain good-natured people with whom Malkin was on friendly terms, and hearing that the children, Bella and Lily, aged fourteen and twelve respectively, were about to undertake alone a journey to the Continent, the erratic hero felt it incumbent upon him to see them safe at their mother’s side. Instead of returning forthwith, he lingered in Normandy for several weeks, striking off at length, on the summons of a friend, to Orleans, whence he was only today returned. Two or three letters had kept Earwaker informed of his movements. Of Mrs. Jacox he wrote as he now spoke, with compassionate respect, and the girls, according to him, were exquisite models of budding maidenhood.

‘You haven’t told me,’ said Earwaker, calmly fronting the indignant outburst, ‘what her circumstances are—at present.’

‘She assists an English lady in the management of a boardinghouse,’ Malkin replied, with an air which forbade trivial comment. ‘Bella and Lily will of course continue their studies. I daresay I shall run over now and then to see them.’

‘May I, without offence, inquire if either of these young ladies seems suitable for the ideal training of which you spoke?’

Malkin smiled thoughtfully. He stood with his legs apart and stroked his blond beard.

‘The surmise is not unnatural. Well, I confess that Bella has inspired me with no little interest. She is rather mature, unfortunately; I wish she had been Lily’s age. We shall see; we shall see.’

Musing, he refilled his pipe, and gossip was prolonged till something after one o’clock. Malkin was never known to retire willingly from an evening’s congenial talk until the small hours were in progress.

Peak, on reaching home about eleven, was surprised to see a light in his sitting-room window. As he entered, his landlady informed him that Mr. Moxey had been waiting upstairs for an hour or two. Christian was reading. He laid down the book and rose languidly. His face was flushed, and he spoke with a laugh which suggested that a fit of despondency (as occasionally happened) had tempted him to excess in cordials. Godwin understood these signs. He knew that his friend’s intellect was rather brightened than impaired by such stimulus, and he affected not to be conscious of any peculiarity.

‘As you wouldn’t come to me,’ Christian began, ‘I had no choice but to come to you. My visit isn’t unwelcome, I hope?’

‘Certainly not. But how are you going to get home? You know the time?’

‘Don’t trouble. I shan’t go to bed to-night. Let me si............