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Updated: June 24, 2025
I want to tell you about an adventure I had in Boston. Met a fellow so devilish like Peak that I couldn't believe it wasn't he himself. I spoke to him, but he swore that he knew not the man. Never saw such a likeness! 'Curious. It may have been Peak. 'By all that's suspicious, I can't help thinking the same! He had an English accent, too. 'Queer business, this of Peak's.
Yet in Peak's case all appearances are against him just because he is of low birth, has no means, and wants desperately to get into society. The fellow is a scoundrel; I am convinced of it. Yet his designs may be innocent. How, then, a scoundrel? 'Poor devil! Has he really fallen in love with Sidwell? 'Humbug! He wants position, and the comfort it brings.
Such an occasion was her first meeting with Sidwell Warricombe, which took place at the Walworths', in London. Down in Devonshire she had learnt that a family named Warricombe were Peak's intimate friends; nothing more than this, for indeed no one was in a position to tell her more.
Peak's shame and annoyance, in face of this London-branded vulgarian, were but feeble emotions compared with those of her son. Godwin hated the man, and was in dread lest any school-fellow should come to know of such a connection. Yet delicacy prevented his uttering a word on the subject to his mother.
'What had he to say about it? Buckland asked, carelessly. Peak's reply was one of those remarkable efforts of mind one might say, of character which are sometimes called forth, without premeditation, almost without consciousness, by a profound moral crisis.
It came out, by-the-bye, that he had given all his acquaintances the slip; they had completely lost sight of him I suppose until Miss Moxey met him by chance at Budleigh Salterton. There's some mystery still. She evidently kept Peak's secret from the Moorhouses and the Walworths. A nice business, altogether! Again there was a long silence.
'Have you heard any talk about Walsh? the latter inquired, as they walked on. Peak shrugged his shoulders, with a laugh. 'No. Have you? 'Some women in front of me just now were-evidently discussing him. I heard "How shocking!" and "Disgraceful!" Peak's eyes flashed, and he exclaimed in a voice of wrath: 'Besotted idiots! How I wish I were in Walsh's position!
That may come to pass three or four generations hence, but as yet the best of you can only vary the type in unimportant particulars. By the way, what is Peak's address? 'Longbrook Street; but I don't know the number. Father can give it you, I think. 'I shall have to drop him a note. I must get back to town early in the morning. 'Really? We hoped to have you for a week. 'Longer next time.
The conventional moralist would cry: Everyone with whom he came in slightest contact! But a mind such as Peak's has very little to do with conventional morality. Injury to himself he foresaw and accepted; he could never be the man nature designed in him; and he must frequently submit to a self-contempt which would be very hard to bear. Those whom he consistently deceived, how would they suffer?
Godwin Peak's mother still dwelt here, she knew, for less than a year ago she had asked the question of Godwin himself; but a woman in humble circumstances might not have a house of her own, and her name was probably unknown save to a few friends. However, the first natural step was to inquire for a directory.
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