It is like
bringing into light a plant that has been sprouting in the dark."
He did not answer for a moment, trying to find it possible to deny the
charge.
"The fact that you know me better makes me seem different," he answered
evasively.
"How much has the fact that you don't know yourself so well to do with
it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, anything you like. I merely suspect that you are not so sure of
your vocation as you were in the Clergy House. Even a deacon is human,
I suppose; and if life is alluring, he can't help feeling it. Are you
still sure that the clergy should be celibate, for instance?"
He felt her eyes piercing him as if his secret thoughts were open to
her, and he knew that he was flushing to his very hair. He hastened to
answer, not only that he might not think, but that she might not
perceive that he had admitted any doubt to his heart.
"More than ever," he responded. "It is impossible not to see that a
clergyman who is married must have his thoughts distracted from his
sacred calling."
Mrs. Staggchase leaned back in her chair and regarded him with the
smile which he found always so puzzling and so disconcerting.
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