o lunch with us, if you don't mind
our being alone. We lunch early, at one, as my husband is tired after his
morning's work and eats virtually nothing at breakfast."

"I shall be delighted," said Malling. "It's very kind of you."

"We always walk home," said the rector.

He sighed. It was obvious that he was in low spirits after the failure of
the morning, but he tried to conceal the fact, and his wife tactfully
helped him. Malling praised the music warmly, and remarked on the huge
congregation.

"I scarcely thought I should find a seat," he added.

"It is always full to the doors in the morning," said Lady Sophia, with a
cheerfulness that was slightly forced.

She glanced at her husband, and suddenly added, not without a decided
touch of feminine spite:

"Unless Mr. Chichester, the senior curate, is preaching."

"My dear Sophy!" exclaimed Mr. Harding.

"Well, it is so!" she said, with a sort of petulance.

"Perhaps Mr. Chichester is not gifted as a preacher," said Malling.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," said the rector.

"My husband never criticizes his--swans," said Lady Sophia, with delicate
malice, and a glance full of meaning at Malling. "But I'm a woman, and my
principles are not so high as his."

"You do yourself an injustice," said the rector. "Here we are."

He drew out his latch-key.

Before lunch Malling was left alone for a few minutes in the drawing-room
with Lady Sophia. The rector had to see a parishioner who had called and
was waiting for him in his study. Directly her husband had left the room
Lady Sophia turned to Malling and said:

"Had you ever heard my husband preach till this morning?"

"No, never," Mailing answered. "I'm afraid I'm not a very regular
church-goer. I must congratulate you again on the music at St. Joseph's.
It is exceptional. Even at St. Anne's Soho--"

Almost brusquely she interrupted him. She was obviously in a highly
nervous condition; and scarcely able to control herself.

"Yes, yes, our music is always good, of course. So glad you liked it.
But what I want to say is that you haven't heard my husband preach this
morning."

Malling looked at her with curiosity, but without astonishment. He might
have acted a part with her as he had the previous day with her husband.
But, as he looked, he came to a rapid decision, to be more frank with the
woman than he had been with the man.

"You mean, of course, that your husband was not in his best vein," he
said. "I won