The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Dweller on the Threshold, by Robert
Smythe Hichens

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Dweller on the Threshold

Author: Robert Smythe Hichens

Release Date: November 27, 2004 [eBook #14176]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD***

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Project Gutenberg Beginners Projects,
Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD

by

ROBERT HICHENS

Author of _The Garden of Allah_, _Bella Donna_, _Egypt and Its
Monuments_, _The Holy Land_, etc.

1911

I

When Evelyn Malling, notorious because of his sustained interest in
Psychical Research and his work for Professor Stepton, first met the
Rev. Marcus Harding, that well-known clergyman was still in the full
flow of his many activities. He had been translated from his labors in
Liverpool to a West End church in London. There he had proved hitherto
an astonishing success. On Hospital Sundays the total sums collected
from his flock were by far the largest that came from the pockets of
any congregation in London. The music in St. Joseph's was allowed by
connoisseurs, who knew their Elgar as well as their Goss, their Perosi
as well as their Bach, and their Wesley, to be remarkable. Critical
persons, mostly men, who sat on the fence between Orthodoxy and Atheism,
thought highly of Mr. Harding's sermons, and even sometimes came down
on his side. And, of all signs surely the most promising for a West End
clergyman's success, smart people flocked to him to be married, and Arum
lilies were perpetually being carried in and out of his chancel, which
was adorned with Morris windows. He was married to a woman who managed
to be admirable without being dull, Lady Sophia, daughter of the late
Earl of Mansford, and sister of the present peer. He was comfortably off.
His health as a rule was good, though occasionally he suffered from some
obscure form of dyspepsia. And he was still comparatively young, just
forty-eight.

Nevertheless, as Evelyn Malling immediately perceived, Mr. Harding was
not a happy man.