ine
strength any longer. It is difficult, almost impossible, to explain
to you exactly the sensation that gradually overspread me; but it used
always to seem to me, when I self-consciously exerted my will, as if
I held within me some weapon almost irresistible, as if I forced it
forward, as if its advance, caused by me, could not be withstood. I
now felt as if I still possessed this weapon, but could not induce it
to move. It was there, like a heavy, useless thing, almost like a burden
upon me.

"And Chichester continued to assert that he felt stronger, more resolute,
less plastic.

"Things went on thus till something within me, what we call instinct, I
suppose, became uneasy. I heard a warning voice which said to me, 'Stop
while there is time!' And I resolved to obey it.

"One night, when very late Chichester and I took our hands from the
table in his little room, I said that I thought we had had enough of
the sittings, that very little happened, that perhaps he and I were not
really _en rapport_, and that it seemed to me useless to continue them.
I suppose I expected Chichester to acquiesce. I say I suppose so, because
till that moment he had always acquiesced in any proposition of mine. Yet
I remember that I did not feel genuine surprise at what actually
happened."

Mr. Harding stopped, took a handkerchief from his pocket, lifted the brim
of his hat, and passed the handkerchief over his forehead two or three
times.

"What happened was this, that Chichester resisted my proposal, and that
I found myself obliged to comply with his will instead of, as usual,
imposing mine upon him.

"This was the beginning--" the rector turned a little toward Malling,
and spoke in a voice that was almost terrible in its sadness--"this was
the beginning of what you have been witness of, my unspeakable decline.
This was the definite beginning of my horrible subjection to Henry
Chichester."

He stopped abruptly. After waiting for a minute or two, expecting him to
continue, Malling said:

"You said that you found yourself _obliged_ to comply with Chichester's
will. Can you explain the nature of that obligation?"

"I cannot. I strove to resist. We argued the matter. He took his stand
upon the moral ground that I was benefiting him enormously through our
sittings. As I had suggested having them ostensibly for that very
purpose, you will see my difficulty."

"Certainly."

"My yielding seemed perfectly natural, perhaps almost ine