change in Mr. Harding. Some vice, such as love of drink, or morphia,
something that disintegrates a man, might have laid its claw upon him.
That was possible. What seemed to Malling much more unaccountable was the
extraordinary change in the direction of strength in Chichester. And the
relations between the two men, if indeed the curate had once worshiped
his rector, were mysteriously transformed. For now, was it not almost as
if something of Harding in Chichester watched, criticized, Chichester in
Harding?

But now--to study Lady Sophia! For if there was really anything in
Malling's curious supposition, the woman must certainly be strangely
affected. He remembered the expression in her eyes when her husband
was preaching, her manner when she spoke of the curate as one of her
husband's swans.

And he longed to see her again. She had said that she hoped he would come
again to St. Joseph's and to her house, but he knew well that any such
desire in her had arisen from her wounded pride in her husband. She
wished Malling to know what the rector could really do. When she thought
that the rector had recovered his former powers, his hold upon the minds
of men, then she would invite Malling to return to St. Joseph's, but not
before.

And when would that moment come?

It might not come for weeks, for months. It might never come. Malling did
not mean to await it. Nevertheless he did not want to do anything likely
to surprise Lady Sophia, to lead her to think that he had any special
object in view in furthering his acquaintance with her.