But to the curate Mark was as much above criticism as a martyr at the foot of the gallows.

Strangely enough, the first break into this moral fog that was settling down in his spiritual world was, of all unlikely things, the letter from Edmund Grosse.

When he got Edmund’s letter Mark was sulking—­there is no other word for it—­over his answer to Lord Lofton, which ought to have gone several days ago.  Of course he was bound by his mission oath to go where he was placed, but the authorities might at least have waited to hear from him before handing him over as if he were a parcel or a Jesuit.  He read Edmund’s cramped writing with a little difficulty, and then threw the three sheets it covered on to the table with a bang, and jumped up.

“Dash it!” he cried, “this is rather too much.”

He did not stop to think that Edmund could not have been so idiotic as to write that letter if he had known of the state of the case between him and Miss Dexter.  It only seemed at the moment that it was another instance of cruelty and utter unfairness, part of the same treatment he was receiving, which expected a man to be a plaster saint with no thought for himself, no natural feelings, no sense of his own reputation!  First of all he was to be buried, torn from his friends, from his work for souls, from the joy of the Good Shepherd seeking the lost sheep.  He was to lose all he loved and for which he had given up his life, his career, his position, and, for the first time, he enumerated among his sacrifices the possession of Groombridge.  Then he blushed for shame—­also for the first time.  How little that had been, compared to what he had to do now!  What had he to do now?  And here the Little Master made his great mistake.  He came out of the fog and shadow, he came into the light because he thought it was safe now.

What had Mark to do that was so much harder?  To submit to authority and forgive its blunders.  He hesitated for a moment; he almost thought it was that.  Then came the light, and he saw the real crux.  What he had to do was to forgive Molly Dexter.  He was startled by the revelation, as men are startled who have been in love without knowing it.  He had been nursing hatred and revenge without knowing it, for, until he had become bitter at the treatment of the authorities, he had felt no anger against Molly.  She had simply been the patient who would scratch out the eyes of the surgeon.  He was surprised into a quiet analysis of the discovery, and then his thoughts stood quite still.  It was only necessary for a noble soul to see such a temptation for him to fight it.  But he passed back from that to the whole of the wrath and hurt feeling that he recognised too.  He was angry with those in authority who expected him to behave like a saint; he had been angry vaguely with Sir Edmund Grosse, but more with circumstances that also demanded of him that he should behave like a saint and do the very worst thing for himself and confirm the calumny against him by acting as Molly’s confidential friend!  But he could not be equally angry at the same time with Miss Dexter, with his own authorities, with Edmund Grosse, and with circumstances.  One injury alone might have been different, but taken together they suggested a plot and intention.  Whose plot?  Whose intention?