Very quietly Malling spoke, and he just touched the rector's arm.
"For a long while."
"Had you ceased from them when I first met you?"
"On Westminster Bridge? No."
"Have you ceased from them now?"
The rector shifted as if in physical distress.
"Chichester constrains me to them even now," he replied, like a man bitterly ashamed. "He constrains me to them. And is that goodness, righteousness? I said he was a saint; but now! Is it saintliness to torture a fellow-creature?"
Malling remembered how he had once, and not long ago, asked himself whether Chichester's mouth and eyes looked good.
"Have you ever told Chichester what grave distress he is causing you?" said Malling.
"No, never, never! I can't!"