A footman brought in tea at this moment, and Malling told the curate he
had heard him preach in the evening of last Sunday.

"It was a deeply interesting sermon," he said.

"Thank you," said Chichester, very impersonally.

The footman went away, and Lady Sophia began to make tea.

"When I went home," Malling continued, "I sat up till late thinking
it over. Part of it suggested to my mind one or two rather curious
speculations."

"Which part?" asked Lady Sophia, dipping a spoon into a silver tea-caddy.

"The part about the man and his double."

She shivered, and some of the tea with which she had just filled the
spoon was shaken out of it.

"That was terrible," she said.

"What were your speculations?" said Chichester, showing a sudden and
definite waking up of keen interest.

"One of them was this--"

Before he could continue, the door opened again, and the tall and
powerful form of the rector appeared. And as the outer man of Chichester
seemed to Malling to have begun subtly to change, in obedience surely