'I don't think it possible for you to regard him as a friend.'
Martin's face expressed relief.
'But will he remain in Exeter?'
'I shouldn't think he can.'
Again a pause. Martin was of course puzzled exceedingly, but he began to feel some assurance that Peak need not be regarded as a danger.
'I am grieved beyond expression,' he said at length. 'So deliberate a fraud—it seems to me inconsistent with any of the qualities I thought I saw in him.'
'Yes—it must.'
'Not—perhaps—to you?' Martin ventured, anxiously.
'His nature is not base.'
'Forgive me, dear.—I understand that you spoke with him after Buckland's call at his lodgings——?'