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Evelyn Malling was well accustomed to meeting with strange people and / making investigations into strange occurrences. He was not easily / surprised, nor was he easily puzzled. By nature more skeptical than / credulous, he had a cool brain, and he was seldom, if ever, the victim / of his imagination. But on the evening of the day in question he found / himself continually dwelling, and with a curiously heated mind, upon the / encounter of that afternoon. Mr. Harding's manner in the latter part of / their walk together had -- he scarcely knew why -- profoundly impressed him. / He longed to see the clergyman again. He longed, almost more ardently, to / pay a visit to Henry Chichester. Although the instinct of caution, which / had perhaps been developed in him by his work among mediums, cranks of / various kinds, and charlatans, had prevented him from letting the rector / know that he had been struck by the change in the senior curate, that / change had greatly astonished him. Yet was it really so very marked? He / had noticed it before his attention had been drawn to it. That he knew. / But was he not now, perhaps, exaggerating its character, "suggestioned" / as it were by the obvious turmoil of Mr. Harding? He wondered, and was / disturbed by his wonderment. Two or three times he got up, with the / intention of jumping into a cab, and going to Westminster to find out / if Professor Stepton was in town. But he only got as far as the hall. / Then something seemed to check him. He told himself that he was in no / fit condition to meet the sharp eyes of the man of science, who delighted / in his somewhat frigid attitude of mind toward all supposed supernormal / manifestations, and he returned to his study and tried to occupy himself / with a book.
On the occasion of his last return, just as he was about to sit down, / his eyes chanced to fall on an almanac framed in silver which stood on / his writing-table. He took it up and stared at it. May 8, Friday -- May 9, / Saturday -- May 10, Sunday. It was May 9. He put the almanac back on the / table with a sudden sense of relief. For he had come to a decision.