Godwin was not distinguished by originality in thinking, but his strongly featured character converted to uses of his own the intellectual suggestions he so rapidly caught from others.

Earwaker's habit of reflection had much to do with the strange feelings awakened in Godwin when he transferred to his mother's house the cabinets which had been Mr.Gunnery's pride for thirty or forty years.

Joy of possession was subdued in him by the conflict of metaphysical questionings.
Days went on, and nothing was heard of Uncle Andrew.

Godwin tried to assure himself that he had been needlessly terrified; the eating-house project would never be carried out.

Practically dismissing that anxiety, he brooded over his defeat by Chilvers, and thought with extreme reluctance of the year still to be spent at Whitelaw, probably a year of humiliation.