"I have heard him say so."

"You saw we were looking at the river? Before I came to London I was at
Liverpool, and learned there to love great rivers. There is something in
a great river that reminds us--"

He caught his curate's eye and was silent.

"Are you walking my way?" asked Malling. "I am going by the Abbey and
Victoria Street to Cadogan Square."

"Then we will accompany you as far as Victoria Station," said the rector.

"You don't think it would be wiser to take a hansom?" began Chichester.
"You remember--"

"No, no, certainly not. Walking always does me good," rejoined Mr.
Harding, almost in a tone of rebuke.

The curate said nothing more, and the three men set out toward Parliament
Square, Malling walking between the two clergymen.

He felt embarrassed, and this surprised him, for he was an extremely
self-reliant man and entirely free from shyness. At first he thought that
possibly his odd discomfort arose from the fact that he was in company
with two men who, perhaps, had quite recently had a difference which they
were endeavoring out of courtesy to conceal from him. Perhaps there had
been a slight quarrel over some parish matter. Certainly when he first
spoke with them there had been something uneasy, a suspicion of strain,
in the manner of both. But then he remembered how, before Chichester had