"It"s very difficult to say. On the day I dined in Hornton Street, Chichester certainly wanted to tell me something. He asked me to dine, I am almost sure, in order that he might tell it to me."
"About the sittings with Harding, no doubt."
"That, perhaps, and something more."
"But he told you nothing."
"Directly."
"Do you think he would be more or less likely to unbosom himself now than he was then?"
"Less likely."
"You might give me his address."
Malling did so. The professor wrote the address down on a slip of paper, pinned the slip carefully to the yellow lining of his jacket, and then got up to go.
But Malling detained him.
"Professor," he said, speaking with an unusual hesitation, "you know why I told you all this."
"In the interests of science?"
"No, in the interest of that miserable man, Marcus Harding. I want you to break the link that binds him to Henry Chichester--if there is one.
I want you to effect his release."
"I"m afraid you"ve come to the wrong man," returned Stepton, dryly. "My object in entering into this matter is merely to increase my knowledge, not to destroy my chance of increasing it."
"But surely--"
"We shall never get forward if we move in the midst of a fog of pity and sentiment."
Malling said no more; but as he watched the professor shambling to the garden gate, he felt as if he had betrayed Marcus Harding.
X
Soon after Malling had returned to London, he received the following note from Mr. Harding:
_Onslow Gardens_, June --th.
_Dear Mr. Malling:_
I seem to have some remembrance of your saying to me at Tankerton that you wished to speak to Professor Stepton with regard to a certain matter.
I may be wrong in my recollection. If, however, I am right, I now beg you not to speak to the professor. I have, of course, the very highest regard for his discretion; nevertheless, one must not be selfish. One must not think only of one"s self. I have obligations to others, and I fear, when we were together at Tankerton, I forgot them. A word of a.s.surance from you that Professor Stepton knows nothing of our conversation will set at rest the mind of
Yours sincerely,
_Marcus Harding._
As soon as he had read this communication, Malling realized that he had been right in his supposition that a new reserve was growing up in Henry Chichester. He was aware of Chichester"s reserve in the letter of the rector. He was aware, too, of the latter"s situation as he had never been aware of it before. Often a trifle illuminates a life, as a search-light brings some distant place from the darkness into a fierce radiance that makes it seem near. So it was now.
"Poor Harding!" thought Malling, with an unusual softness. "But this letter comes too late."
What answer should he return to the rector? He hated insincerity, but on this occasion he stooped to it. He had not only the fear of Stepton upon him; he had also the desire not to add to the deep misery of Marcus Harding. This was his answer:
_Cadogan Square_, June --.
_Dear Mr. Harding:_
In reply to your letter, I will not now repeat our conversation of the other evening to Professor Stepton. He is, as you say, a man of the highest discretion, and should you feel inclined yourself to take him into your confidence at any time, I think you will not regret it.
Yours sincerely,
_Evelyn Malling_.
As he put this note into an envelope, Malling said to himself:
"Some day I"ll let him know I deceived him; I"ll let him know I had already told the professor."
Two or three days later Malling heard of the professor having been at a party in Piccadilly at which Lady Sophia was a guest.
"And do you know, really,"--Malling"s informant, a lively married woman, concluded,--"those old scientific men are quite as bad as any of the boys who only want to have a good time. The professor sat in Lady Sophia"s pocket the whole evening! Literally in her pocket!"
"I didn"t know modern women had pockets," returned Malling.
"They don"t, of course; but you know what I mean."
Malling understood that the professor was beginning his "approach."
A week went by, and at a man"s dinner, Malling chanced to sit next to Blandford Sikes, one of the most noted physicians of the day. In the course of conversation the doctor remarked:
"Is your friend Stepton going to set up in Harley Street?"
"Not that I know of," said Malling. "What makes you ask?"
"He came to consult me the other day, and when I told him he was as sound as Big Ben he sat with me for over half an hour pumping me unmercifully on the subject of nervous dyspepsia. The patient who followed, and who happened to be a clergyman, looked fairly sick when he was let in at last."
Who happened to be a clergyman! Malling had longed to ask Blandford Sikes a question--who that clergyman was. But he refrained. To do so, would doubtless have seemed oddly inquisitive. It was surely enough for him to know that the professor was busily at work in his peculiar way.
And Malling thought again of that "approach." Evidently the professor must be describing the curve he had spoken of. When would he arrive at Henry Chichester? There were moments when Malling felt irritated by Stepton"s silence. That it was emulated by Marcus Harding, Lady Sophia, and Henry Chichester did not make matters easier for him. However, he had deliberately chosen to put this strange affair into Stepton"s hands.
Stepton had shown no special alacrity with regard to the matter. Malling felt that he could do nothing now but wait.
He waited.
Now and then rumors reached him of Marcus Harding"s fading powers, now and then he heard people discussing one of Henry Chichester"s "remarkable sermons," now and then in society some feminine gossip murmuring that "Sophia Harding seems to be perfectly sick of that husband of hers. She probably wishes now that she had taken all her people"s advice and refused him. Of course if he had been made a _bishop_!"