'Then Malkin was mistaken?'
'Plainly.'
'And you mean to tell me that Peak——? Give me more details. Where's he living? How has he got to know people like these Warricombes?'
Marcella told all that she knew, and without injunction of secrecy. The affair had passed out of her hands; destiny must fulfil itself. And again the tremor that resembled an uneasy joy went through her frame.
'But how,' asked Christian, 'did this fellow Warricombe come to know that I was a friend of Peak's?'
'That's a puzzle to me. I shouldn't have thought he would have remembered my name; and, even if he had, how could he conclude——'
She broke off, pondering. Warricombe must have made inquiries, possibly suggested by suspicions.
'I scarcely spoke of Mr. Peak to anyone,' she added. 'People saw, of course, that we were acquaintances, but it couldn't have seemed a thing of any importance.'
'You spoke with him in private, it seems?'
'Yes, I saw him for a few minutes—in Exeter.'