intolerable. Why do I bear it? But I have to bear it.
Sometimes I exert myself against him. Why, that first day I met you--you
must have noticed it--he tried to prevent me from walking home with you."

"I did notice it."

"Then I resisted him, and he had to yield. But even when he yields in
some slight matter it makes no difference in our relations. He is always
there, at the window, watching me."

"What do you say?"

Malling's exclamation was sharp.

"That sermon of his!" said the rector. "That fearful sermon! Ever since
I heard it I have felt as if I were the double within that house, as
if Chichester were the man regarding my life in hiding. Why you--you
yourself put my feeling into words! You suggested to Chichester and
my wife that if the man had stayed, had spied upon him who was within
the room, the hypocrite--"

He broke off. He got up from his seat.

"Let us walk," he said. "I cannot sit here. The air--the lights--let
us--"

Almost as if blindly he went forth from the shelter, followed by Malling.

"It's better here," he said. "Better here! Mr. Malling, forgive me,
but just then a hideous knowledge seemed really to catch me by the
throat. Chichester is turning my wife against me. There is a terrible
change in her. She is beginning to observe me through Chichester's eyes.
Till quite recently she worshiped me. She noticed the alteration in me,
of course,--every one did,--but she hated Chichester for his attitude
toward me. Till quite lately she hated him. Now she no longer hates him;
for she begins to think he is right. At first I think she believed the
excuse I put forward for my strange transformation."

"Do you mean your nervous affection?"

"Yes."

"Just tell me, have you any trouble of that kind, or did you merely
invent it as an excuse for any failure you made from time to time?"

"I used it insincerely as an excuse. But I really do suffer from time
to time physically. But physical suffering is nothing. Why should we
waste a thought on such nonsense?"

"In such a strange case as this I believe everything should be taken
carefully into consideration," observed Malling in his most prosaic
voice.

The rector's attention seemed to be suddenly fixed and powerfully
concentrated. The feverish excitement he had been displaying gave place
to a calmer, more natural mood.

"Tell me," he said, "do you think your knowledge can help me? I am aware
that you have made many strange investigations. Is th