But as the summer grew he felt a moral sultriness, as it were, growing with it.

The people were off their balance, restless; and behind their behaviour he had a sense, now of something electric, menacing, now of a hand holding it in check.

Slowly in those days the conviction deepened in him that he was an alien on this coast, that between him and the hearts of the race he ministered to there stretched an impalpable, impenetrable veil.

And all this while the faces he passed on the road, though shy, were kindlier than they had been in the days before his self-confidence left him--it seemed not so long ago.
On a Saturday night early in May, the footsteps were heard again, and this time in the porch itself.

While Mr.Raymond and Taffy listened the big latch went up with a creak, and a dark figure slipped into the church.
"Who is there ?" challenged Mr.Raymond from the chancel where he stood peering out of the small circle of light.
"A friend.