The bishop nodded contentedly. "I just wanted to express my sympathy
with your present anxiety, and my belief that everything will come all
right."
"You do believe that?"
"Unquestionably. Such efforts as yours are not foredoomed. I see you,
too, are of my opinion."
"I have to be," said Clark reflectively.
"I'm not at all surprised, since you can turn to the physical evidence
of your own efforts to support you. It gives you an advantage over
myself."
"Does it?"
The visitor pointed to the mass of buildings close at hand. "You have
all that, and there is no doubt that inanimate things possess a
peculiar influence, either strengthening or otherwise. But still I can
quite imagine what it means to you to sit here and listen to silence
with so many reminders about you. It is one of the things that the
servants of humanity must occasionally face."
"Servants?" said Clark curiously.
"Is not a leader also a servant. Has he anything left for himself, and
is it not just a different term for the same thing?"
The other man experienced a strange sensation that he had discovered
this a long time ago. The bishop had also discovered it, but had not
forgotten.
"I have it in my mind that there is another reason why you should not
be depressed," went on the prelate assuringly. "You have always
demanded too much of yourself; and while you are many kinds of a man
you cannot be all kinds."