The Dweller on the Threshold

in. She was as good as her word. In the middle of the week he received a note from her, saying she would be at home at four on Thursd

chester almost immediat

," said Malling, concealing

it should be. For what

r should

Lily Armitage, saw you there. I didn't. I was sitting at the back. I have

e frank, and do you

for an instant

mons, and I do wis

hester's sermon ver

husband'

f with contempt when she sai

rest?" said Malling, speaking conve

nk he ne

esome malady,

t ma

r very much from

changed almost instantly into seriou

"Very few of us don't have something. But we

husband away," said Malling, though Mr. Harding's

ered away, I don't k

y n

said, with what seemed to Malling a sort of odd obstinacy. "In fac

and that she had rejected it. Her words recalled to his mind some other words of her husband, spoken in Mr. Harding's study: "Surely one ought to get

e rector could not get away from the atmo

d to trust everything t

, prosa

be-now," s

given her husband up. Since Malling had first encountered her she had cried, "Le roi est mort!" in her heart. The way she

s wonder in his mind, Henry C

heless, he was startled by the alteration in the curate's outward man. It seemed, to use the rector's phrase, that he had "shed his character." And now, perhaps, the new character, mysteriously using matter as the vehicle of its manifestation, was be

was all. Yet it would have been impossible to express more clearly a woman's mental, not affectional, subjugation by a man, her

le roi!"

ft him above the small things that flatter small men. He acknowledged that he was tired, and would be glad of tea. H

ested to the rector tha

e," said L

ming in to tea?"

e knew Mr. Malling was to be here.

ertain I should

will proba

and Malling told the curate he had heard

y interesting s

d Chichester, ve

ay, and Lady Sophia

till late thinking it over. Part of it suggested

Sophia, dipping a spoon

ut the man an

a with which she had just filled

terrible,"

Chichester, showing a sudden and d

them w

an, so seemed Mr. Harding a little altered physically, as he now slowly came forward to greet his wife's two visitors. The power of his physique seemed to be struck at by something within, and to be slightly marred. One saw that largenes

tea?" he asked, loo

" she replied. "We are talking

joined t

ed to M

to hear me p

s of slight reassu

r's sermon," s

e people in the room, like a man searching for sympathy or help. "What were you sa

distributed

t which dealt with the man who fo

aid the

ightly at this moment, and the china rattled. He

urned, with an almost rapt air-"that it suggested some curious specul

e, had not fled away. Suppose he had had the courage to remain, and, in hi

why not?" inter

d him. And again Malling thought of him almost as some one set apart fro

n observation, terrible no doubt and grotesque, would be likely to have on the soul of the

and, with the gesture characteristic of him, droppin

ch the life of his double, what effect would such

violent movement of his big hand and arm, t

composing your sermon to follow that trai

I was too engrossed with the feelings of the man. But, then, you thou

ur fault," s

a sort of latent sharpness, and la

ing the narrative s

himself again

Did you not make his wife come to bid him good night, b

Chichester, still speaking

here was an accent almost of horror. "It sickened me to the soul," she con

as a man,"

ing that it should be so. He now sat back in his chair listening to all that was being sa

double be a man?"

interesting region either, I think. The other night for a whole hour, having assumed the doub

d at Chi

n I was engrossed by the th

idently laid a grip u

xistence would be, according

nt by the man so terrible tha

es

strong enou

Chichester. "Better say, h

. If we can learn by contemplation, can we not, must we not, learn by being contemplated? Life

ht-you are right,

ry committed to the drawer and safely locked away, rising up to go to rest with a smile of self-satisfaction. It seemed to me that, given my circumstance of the persistent observation, a few nights later matters would have been very different within

," said Chichester. "You put the

ce, which can touch not as a hand touches, but as unmistakably. I ima

ed! Tro

ost lamentably. His powerfully shaped

egration beginning, and proceeding, in the double-a disint

s went from Chic

living the hypocrite's life, while the hypocrite is only seen. Might not the former, therefore, conceivably draw in strength, while the other faded into weakness? Ignorance is the terrible thing in life, I think. Now the man who watched would receive knowledge, fearful knowledge, but the man who was watched, while perhaps suffering first uneasiness, then possibly even terror, would not, in my conception, ever clearly u

!" said Mr. Hardin

hat was

the lesson men learn from being cont

nge to greater lightness and ease,

ifferent thing from his own contemplation by himself. For our fellow-men always remain in a very de

d at her closely, he saw to be under the influence of fear, provoked doubtless by the subject they had been discussing. Chichester, also, had a look as of fear in his eyes. As to the re

half-laughing questi

all these thin

re sometimes called

es

hav

ou believ

ask you to be a lit

at there are such

ca. It appears to be established that now and then two human beings are born who, throughout their respective

only that," s

in mind and soul as

che

es

ul is the double of anot

nse?" said Lady Sophia, almost hotly, and yet, it seemed to Malling, with a sl

and powerful invention in

than that?" sa

up in him. Did he really think it nothing more than that? He glan

l frame shifted in his chair,

ter leave such things alone. You do

imself up" to speak as he had just spoken. Lady Sophia was about to make a quick rejoinde

," he said, "I find that I sh

he circle at his

d me away for a week,

if almost in despite of themselves, Lady Sophia an

me quite well, of course

o be away long?"

so. The doctor says I absolute

got up

r little holiday," he sa

n the tide is down it comes off the mud flats. A kind parishioner of mine-" he turned slightly toward his wife:

e project, and did not inquire whether

Malling, her dark eyes seeme

ght she loo