“Not at all, if you wish to—­”

“Well, now, you are a man of the world, you’ve seen many people.  I wish you would tell me something.”

“What is it?”

Ellen appeared with the mutton.  As soon as she had put it on the table and departed, Chichester continued: 

“How does Mr. Harding strike you?  What impression does he make upon you?”

Eagerness, even more, something that was surely anxiety, shone in his eyes as he asked the question.

“He’s a very agreeable man.”

“Of course, of course!  Would you say he was a man to have much power over others, his fellow-men?”

“Speaking quite confidentially—­”

“Nothing you say shall ever go beyond us two.”

“Then—­I don’t know that I should.”

“He doesn’t strike you as a man of power?”

“In the pulpit?”

“And out of it—­especially out of it?”

“He may have been.  But—­perhaps he has lost in power.  Dispersion, you know, does not make for strength.”

Suddenly the curate became very pale.

“Dispersion—­you say!” he almost stammered.

As if to cover some emotion, he looked at Malling’s plate, and added: 

“Have some more?  You won’t?  Then—­”

He got up and rang the bell.  Ellen reappeared, cleared away, and put the stewed fruit and custard on the table.

“Bring the coffee in ten minutes, Ellen.  I won’t ring.”

“Very well, sir.”

“Dispersion,” said Chichester to Malling in a firmer voice, as Ellen disappeared.

“Concentration makes for strength.  Mr. Harding seems to me mentally—­what shall I say?—­rather torn in pieces, as if preyed upon by some anxiety.  Now, if you’ll allow me to be personal, I should say that you have greatly gained in strength and power since I knew you two years ago.”

“You—­you observe a difference?” asked Chichester, apparently in great perturbation.

“A striking difference.”

“And—­and would you say I looked a happier, as well as a—­a stronger man?”

“I couldn’t with truth say that.”

“Very few of us are happy,” said Chichester, with trembling lips.  “Poor miserable sinners as we are!  And we clergymen, who set up to direct others—­” he broke off.

He seemed greatly, strangely, moved.

“You must forgive me.  I have had a very hard day’s work!” he murmured.  “The coffee will do me good.  Let us sit in the armchairs, and Ellen can clear away.  I wish I had two sitting-rooms.”

He rang to make Ellen hurry.  Till she came Malling talked about Italian pictures and looked at the curate’s books.  When she had cleared away, left the coffee, and finally departed, he sat down with an air of satisfaction.  Chichester did not smoke, but begged Malling to light up, and gave him a cigar.

“Coffee always does one good,” he said.  “It acts directly on the heart, and seems to strengthen the whole body.  I have had a trying day.”