e
been punished, terribly punished.

"We sat, as I say, in Hornton Street, secretly, and of course at night.
My wife knew nothing of it. I made excuses to get away--parish matters,
meetings, work in the East End. I had no difficulty with her. She thought
my many activities would bring me ever more and more into the public
eye, and she encouraged them. The people in the house where Chichester
lodged were simple folk, and were ready to go early to bed, leaving
rector and curate discussing their work for the salvation of bodies and
souls.

"At first Chichester was reluctant, I know. I read his thoughts. He was
not sure that it was right to approach such mysteries; but, as usual, I
dominated him silently. And soon he fell completely under the fascination
peculiar to sittings."

Again Mr. Harding paused. For a moment his head sank, his powerful body
drooped, he was immersed in reverie. Malling did not interrupt him. At
last, with a deep sigh, and now speaking more slowly, more unevenly, he
continued:

"What happened exactly at those sittings I do not rightly know. Perhaps
I shall never rightly know. What did not happen I can tell you. In the
first place, although I secretly used my will upon Chichester, desiring,
mentally insisting, that he should become entranced, he never was
entranced when we sat together. Something within him--was it something
holy? I have wondered--resisted my desire, of which, so far as I know,
he was never aware. Perhaps 'beneath the threshold' he was aware. Who
can say? But though my great desire was frustrated in our sittings, the
desire of Chichester, so different, perhaps so much more admirable than
mine, and, at any rate, not masked by any deceit, began, so it seemed,
to be strangely gratified. He declared almost from the first that, when
sitting with me, he felt his will power strengthened. 'You are doing me
good,' he said. Now, as my professed object in contriving the sittings
had been to lift up Chichester toward my level,"--with indescribable
bitterness Mr. Harding dwelt on these last words,--"I could only express
rejoicing. And this I did with successful hypocrisy. Nevertheless,
I was greatly irritated. For it seemed to me that, when we sat,
Chichester triumphed over me. He obtained his desire while mine remained
ungratified. This was an outrage directed against my supremacy over him,
which I had designed to increase. I gathered together my will power to
check it. But in this attempt I