The Dweller on the Threshold

luncheon in Onslow Gardens, but they had seldom been absent from his thoughts, and more than once he had looked at the words, "D

married, and Malling found him alone after dinner, writing busily in his crowded library. He had but recently retur

was ecclesiastical. He nearly always wore very light-colored clothes. Even in winter he was often to be seen clad in yellow-gray tweeds, a yellow silk necktie, and a fawn-colored Homburg hat. And no human being had ever encountered him in a pair of boots unprotected by spats. One peculiarity of his was that he did not

e in he looked

about Mrs. Groeb

r interesting?"

festations, done in

is pen, while M

ning," he said. "But all about Hal

d was at once understood to be so by Malling. It did not mean "Why ha

s elbows on his just dried manuscript, and res

no mystery, and had come w

an called Marcus Ha

ph's. To be

his senior curate,

N

u heard

I fancy I've seen

him from Hardi

and Hardin

om Lady

hates

said Malling

was only aware of the f

ppose that Harding has bee

c, biblical cri

sychical

N

Chiches

N

ver talked to you

" said the profes

idn't enco

clergymen to talk abo

uld not he

periments in directions not entirely unknown to us," he observed. "And what is more"-he paused-"what is more," he co

in Malling's direction, and his small eyes glittered almos

en in psychical research crowne

at I can do in the pul

is hands hanging, and his fingers opening and sh

n!" he

to. I want

ho had interrupted him two or three times to ask pertinent que

ted advice," he s

vise me how I had

e matter important?"

ed slightly

n't?" h

from not very much. That's ce

ter," retorted Malling.

done something such as you suppose-and that there has been a res

n into the matter. But I'm positive both the men want help from me. I do

wo clergymen! That's the best of it-if

oke very wa

atience of science. Table-turning women, feminine men! 'The spirits guide me, Professor, in every smallest action of my life!'-Wuff!-the charlatan battens and breeds. And the bile rises in one till Carlyle on his worst day might have hailed one as a brother bilious, and so d

his bushy eyebrows twitchin

there's anything in it, development will take place in the link. The link w

id Malling, in

! Her ladyship!" cried out the prof

, after much more conversation on other topics, got up to go.

it's probably al

ha

r come upon an exactly similar case. I don't know whether such a thing can be. No more do you-you've guessed. Now, guessing is not at

ou advi

tudy Lady Sophi

heard the professor snapping out to himsel

d gentlemen of St. Joseph's! I shall have to look for telergic po

ught over these parting words, he realized their

now he had called and asked for Lady Sophia. But doubtless he would have an opportunit

ee her with He

gmentary as was his speech, he had a way of darting at the essential that set him apart from most men. Malling remembered a horrible thing he had once seen in the Sahara, a running gazelle killed by a falcon. The falcon, rising high in the blue air, had followed the gazelle, had circled, poised, then s

o this because he was ab

here really was anything in it, if strangeness rose out of the orthodox bosom of St. Joseph's, if he-Malling-found himself walking in thick darkness, h

hake off depression. But in his effort he did not succeed. All that he saw deepened his melancholy; the soldiers starting out vaguely from barracks, not knowing what to do, but free for a time, and hoping, a little heavily, for some adventure to break the military monotony of their lives; the shopgirls, also in hope of something to "take them out of themselves"-pathetic desire of escape from the little prison, where

they drew a black shutter over all the blue in his heart, blotting it out. People became doomed phantoms, because the weather had changed and because London knows how to play Cassandra to the spirit of many a man. To Malling, as he presently turned to the right, Hornton Street loo

well. Malling took off his hat and coat, hung them up on a hook indicated by the plump red han

that surely bespoke Henry Chichester's personal taste. There were bookcases, there were mezzotints, there were engravings of well-known pictures, and there were armchairs

Mr. Chich

d of splashing water, then a voice saying, certainly to the maid, "Thank you, El

the parish. There'

verworked?" a

?" said Chich

irror which was fixed to the wall just behind him. His man

" he said, again turning. "We change,

e seeking something in Ma

since we used to meet two years ago? It wo

at him for a

arance,

cour

o me that you have a

the curate, as

is,-it seems to me more apparent to-night

the room bearing a tray o

n. You won't mind simple fare, I hope. We are

, sir," inter

it and custard. Open th

ms long?" asked Malling, as

. Joseph's. The rector told me of them. Th

ecame o

mpton now. But when he lef

of work at S

he got on wit

dible outside, and a faint sou

l not stay much

you'll tak

tay much longer-perhaps. That will do, Ellen; you may go a

id was gone

ne says. As she was standing behind me I had forgotten she

hinking of his depression while

htly lowering his voice, "if I speak

ll, if yo

world, you've seen many people. I

t is

soon as she had put it on the table

rike you? What impressio

hat was surely anxiety, shone in

ery agree

say he was a man to have much p

quite conf

y shall ever go

't know tha

rike you as a

he pu

it-especiall

has lost in power. Dispersion, you

curate beca

u say!" he alm

tion, he looked at Mall

more? You w

appeared, cleared away, and put the s

in ten minutes, El

well

er to Malling in a firmer v

torn in pieces, as if preyed upon by some anxiety. Now, if you'll allow me to be personal, I

ce?" asked Chichester, appa

ing diff

looked a happier, as we

with truth

bling lips. "Poor miserable sinners as we are! And we

eatly, stran

urmured. "The coffee will do me good. Let us sit in the armcha

urate's books. When she had cleared away, left the coffee, and finally departed, he sat down with an

cts directly on the heart, and seems to stren

tired," sa

ecovered the color he had so suddenly lo

rejoined Chichester, in a

ake a strong effort to recover hi

uaintanceship, but also-you won't think me discourteous, I

tell me w

l struggle was evidently going on within him. Indeed, during the whole eveni

at Mr. Harding's the other day. You remember

es

rivate. People so easily misunderstand one.

ccessful sitting when, the possibility of trickery having been eliminated, a hitherto hidden truth seemed about to lift a torch in the darkness an

you said a thing that greatly impressed me, that I have never been able to get out of my mind since. You said, 'Harm can neve

ter's lips with such force tha

meant them,

truth

idea-some wretched fallacy, perhaps, that has governed the mind

n lives by a lie h

you thi

a crutch to help us alo

t is good to bolster up truth with li

n't sa

lied it,

eed. If you went abroad, say to Italy, and saw how the poor, ignorant people live happily often

I would gladly strike away a lie from any

at once," sai

ng either in the way they were said, or in Chichester

he greatly desired to hide from his companion, he blew out a puff

er cup?" he said.

the table. Chicheste

up, too," he said. "Ho

at Mailin

erribly s

ject-don't you still think that

egan Chiches

nted him from continuing. He swallowed,

, "that few men know how terr

ted as he spoke, as if he were

in his chair to confront Malling

ling had thought of as good, but weak, and certainly as a negligible quantity. He dominated, because at

id Malling. "

s worked, but he

a combat in which two forces were engaged. He got up, wal

n were here!" t

een, but not thoroughly understood, as a whole invisible. Stepton would be

d the curate at las

easy, almost sinister noise of rain in darkness

we have a little

ike it," sa

more uninteresting. Crossing his legs, and folding his thin hands on his knees, he began to talk in his light tenor voice. And he kept the

m troubled once more. He clasped Malling's hand in his, as if al

going to see th

speaking the strict truth, and virtu

ossible, to see Mr. Harding

from one foot to another and looking down at

ask y

Strangers, of course, may not know it, not realize it. But we who h

he been speaking of himself, of his own decadence

red the look in his eyes as

nceited. To-night he felt diminished. The worm-sensation overcame him. That such a man as Chichester should have been able to convey to him such a sensation was strange, yet it was from Chichester

ould have had such an

He now conveyed the impression of a man capable, if he chose, of imposing himself on others. Formerly he had been the wax that receives the impress. But whereas formerly he

errible the face of

er had s

ne of th

lked home in the darkness and rain,

truth a Medusa face, still would he have desired to look into it

ave seen what he had not seen-th

here's anything in it, development will take place in the li

y not follow Stepton's a

ph

a sense of greater well-being. The worm-sensation depar