ar greater than myself to whom I can look
up,' but also, 'Here is a man to whom I must look up, because he is far
better than myself.' At that interview it was settled that I should
become senior curate at St. Joseph's.

"As you know, I became, and still am, senior curate. As I grew to know
Marcus Harding better I admired him more. In fact, my feeling for him
was something greater than admiration. I almost worshiped him. His will
was law to me in everything. His slightest wish I regarded as a behest.
His talents amazed me. But I thought him not only the cleverest, but the
best of men. It seemed to me right that such a man should be autocratic.
A beneficent autocracy became my ideal of government. That my rector's
will should be law to his wife, his servants, his curates, his organist,
his choir, to those attached to his schools, to those who benefited by
the charities he organized, seemed to me more than right and proper. I
could have wished to see it law to all the world. If any one ventured
to question any decision of his, or to speak a word against him, I felt
almost hot with anger. In a word, I was at his feet, as the small and
humble-minded man often is at the feet of the man who has talents and
who is gifted with ambition and supreme self-confidence.

"For a long time this condition of things continued, and I was happy in
it. Probably it might have continued till now, if--if that accursed idea
had not come to Marcus Harding."

Again Chichester paused. In speaking he had evidently become gradually
less aware of his companion's presence and personality. His subject
had gripped him. Memory had grown warm within him. He lived in the days
that were past.

"That accursed idea," he repeated slowly, "to use me as his tool in an
endeavor to break down the barrier which divides men from the other
world.

"As I told you, we began to sit secretly. Marcus Harding wished me to
fall into the entranced condition. I did not know this at first, so at
first I did not consciously resist his desire. He had told me a lie. He
had told me that he desired only one thing in our sittings, to give to
me something of the will power that made him a force in the world. He had
declared that this was possible. I believed him unquestioningly. I
thought he was trying to send some of his power into me. Soon I felt that
he was succeeding in this supposed endeavor. Soon I felt that a strange
new power was filtering into me."

Chichester fixed h