"But don't we all need a crutch to help us along on the path of life?"

"What! You, a clergyman, think that it is good to bolster up truth with
lies?" said Malling, with genuine scorn.

"I didn't say that."

"You implied it, I think."

"Perhaps if you had worked among men and women as much as I have you
would know how much they need. If you went abroad, say to Italy, and saw
how the poor, ignorant people live happily oftentimes by their blind
belief in the efficacy of the saints, would you wish to tear it from
them?"

"I think we should live by the truth, and I would gladly strike away a
lie from any human being who was using it as a crutch."

"_I_ thought that once," said Chichester.

The words were ordinary enough, but there was something either in the
way they were said, or in Chichester's face as he said them, that made
Malling turn cold.

To cover his unusual emotion, which he was ashamed of, and which he
greatly desired to hide from his companion, he blew out a puff of cigar
smoke, lifted his cup, and drank the rest of his coffee.

"May I have another cup?" he said. "It's excellent."