For years he had understood that London offered him no prospect of social advancement.

But a night passed under this roof practically raised him to a level whence he surveyed a rich field of possible conquest.

With the genial geologist he felt himself on excellent terms, and much of this was ascribable to a singular chance which had masked his real being, and represented him, with scarce an effort of his own, in a light peculiarly attractive to Mr.Warricombe.
He was now playing the conscious hypocrite; not a pleasant thing to face and accept, but the fault was not his--fate had brought it about.
At all events, he aimed at no vulgar profit; his one desire was for human fellowship; he sought nothing but that solace which every code of morals has deemed legitimate.

Let the society which compelled to such an expedient bear the burden of its shame.
That must indeed have been a circle of great intellects amid which Godwin Peak felt himself subordinate.

He had never known that impression, and in the Warricombe family was no one whom he could regard even as his equal.