"Can God only be served in cassock and surplice?"
"You evade my question," said David. "Mark, I have had the feeling that you were in trouble: ill, dying perhaps. I—I had to come to you. But I find you a strong man, and "—he glanced round at the pleasant garden—"and wasting time. Don't mistake me! You have been working hard, no doubt, but at work which others can do as well. You have recovered your health and——"
"Go on."
"The work God intended you to do is being left undone," said David. "Why?"
"If we are to remain friends, David, you had better not press this question."
"If we are to remain friends, I must. You have resigned a stupendous responsibility—why?"
"Shall we say—incapacity to administer it?"
"Give me the true reason."
"Can't you divine it?"
"I have divined it," said David, after a long pause. "You sneer at a gift which is given to few; but you, of all men, ought to know that it has been given to me. And I have divined more. I know that you are on the edge of an abyss which may engulf you and another."