zing how it has affected his own fate. And then slowly there
came to me, or grew in me, an understanding of how I was alone. I was
alone with Marcus Harding at that moment because I was Marcus Harding. A
shutter seemed to slide back softly, and for the first time I, Marcus
Harding, stared upon myself out of the body of another man, of Henry
Chichester. I was alone with my soul double. Motionless, silent, I gazed
upon it. Now I understood why I had been tortured with anxiety lest
the world should learn to comprehend Marcus Harding as I comprehended
him. Now I understood why neither he nor I had been able to break that
mysterious link which our sittings had forged between us. I had been
trying ignorantly to protect myself, to conceal my own shortcomings, to
cover my own nakedness. I had sweated with fear lest my own truth should
be discovered by all those to whom for so many years I had been
presenting a lie. Yes, I had sweated with fear; but even then how little
I had known! A voice cried out suddenly, 'Turn on the light!' It was
the voice of my double. It seemed to awake, or to recall perhaps,--how
can I say?--Henry Chichester. I was aware of a shock; it seemed strongly
physical. I got up at once and turned the light on. Marcus Harding was
before me, trembling, ashen. 'What is it? What has happened?' he said in
a broken voice. I made no reply. He left me. I heard his step in the
street--out there!"

Chichester was silent. The professor said nothing for a moment, but
passed his tongue twice over his lips and swallowed, sighing immediately
afterward.

"Transferred personality!" he muttered--"transferred personality. Is that
what you'd have me believe?"

"I'll tell you the rest. When Marcus Harding's steps died away down the
street I remained here. Since that shock I have spoken of, I felt that I
was again Henry Chichester, changed, as I had long been changed--charged
with new force, new knowledge, new discrimination, new power over others,
gifted with a penetrating vision into the very soul of the man I had
worshiped, yet Henry Chichester. And as Henry Chichester I suffered; I
condemned myself. This I said to myself that night, 'I was determined to
see. I disregarded the voice within me which warned me that I was
treading a forbidden path. God has punished me. He has allowed me to see.
But this shall be the end. I will never sit again. I will give up my
curacy. I will leave St. Joseph's at once. Never more will I set ey