Suddenly she checked herself and looked, with a sort of covert inquiry,
at Malling.

"You must think me quite mad to talk like this," she said, with a return
to her manner when he first met her.

"Shall I tell you what I really think?" he asked, leaning forward in the
chair he had taken.

"Yes, do, do!"

"I think you are very ambitious for your husband and that your ambition
for him has received a perhaps mysterious--check."

Before she could reply the door opened and Mr. Harding reappeared.

At lunch he carefully avoided any reference to church matters, and
they talked on general subjects. Lady Sophia showed herself a nervously
intelligent and ardent woman. It seemed to Malling obvious that she was
devoted to her husband, "wrapped up in" him--to use an expressive phrase.
Any failure on his part upset her even more than it did him. Secretly she
must still be quivering from the public distresses of the morning. But
she now strove to aid the rector's admirable effort to be serene, and
proved herself a clever talker, and well informed on the events of the
day. Of her Malling got a fairly clear impression.

But his impression of her husband was confused and almost nebulous.

"Do you smoke?" asked Mr. Harding, when lunch was over.