"Do I look so?" said Chichester, quickly.
He turned round and gazed at himself in an oval Venetian mirror which was fixed to the wall just behind him. His manner for a moment was oddly absorbed as he examined his face.
"London life tells on one, I suppose," he said, again turning. "We change, of course, in appearance as we go on."
His blue eyes seemed to be seeking something in Malling's impenetrable face.
"Do you think," he said, "I am much altered since we used to meet two years ago? It would of course be natural enough if I were."
Malling looked at him for a minute steadily.
"In appearance, you mean?"
"Of course."
"To-night it seems to me that you have altered a good deal."
"To-night?" said the curate, as if with anxiety.