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Page 75
"Isn't it?" asked the warden, innocently. "Well, at any rate, I've
done it now. Sir Abraham didn't seem to think it so very strange."
The archdeacon gave a sigh that would have moved a man-of-war.
"But, papa, what did you say to Sir Abraham?" asked the lady.
"I asked him, my dear, to explain John Hiram's will to me. He
couldn't explain it in the only way which would have satisfied me,
and so I resigned the wardenship."
"Resigned it!" said the archdeacon, in a solemn voice, sad and low,
but yet sufficiently audible,--a sort of whisper that Macready would
have envied, and the galleries have applauded with a couple of rounds.
"Resigned it! Good heavens!" And the dignitary of the church sank
back horrified into a horsehair arm-chair.
"At least I told Sir Abraham that I would resign; and of course I must
now do so."
"Not at all," said the archdeacon, catching a ray of hope. "Nothing
that you say in such a way to your own counsel can be in any way
binding on you; of course you were there to ask his advice. I'm sure
Sir Abraham did not advise any such step."
Mr Harding could not say that he had.
"I am sure he disadvised you from it," continued the reverend
cross-examiner.
Mr Harding could not deny this.
"I'm sure Sir Abraham must have advised you to consult your friends."
To this proposition also Mr Harding was obliged to assent.
"Then your threat of resignation amounts to nothing, and we are just
where we were before."
Mr Harding was now standing on the rug, moving uneasily from one foot
to the other. He made no distinct answer to the archdeacon's last
proposition, for his mind was chiefly engaged on thinking how he could
escape to bed. That his resignation was a thing finally fixed on, a
fact all but completed, was not in his mind a matter of any doubt; he
knew his own weakness; he knew how prone he was to be led; but he was
not weak enough to give way now, to go back from the position to which
his conscience had driven him, after having purposely come to London
to declare his determination: he did not in the least doubt his
resolution, but he greatly doubted his power of defending it against
his son-in-law.
"You must be very tired, Susan," said he: "wouldn't you like to go to
bed?"
But Susan didn't want to go till her husband went. She had an idea
that her papa might be bullied if she were away: she wasn't tired at
all, or at least she said so.
The archdeacon was pacing the room, expressing, by certain nods of his
head, his opinion of the utter fatuity of his father-in-law.
"Why," at last he said,--and angels might have blushed at the rebuke
expressed in his tone and emphasis,--"Why did you go off from
Barchester so suddenly? Why did you take such a step without giving
us notice, after what had passed at the palace?"
The warden hung his head, and made no reply: he could not condescend
to say that he had not intended to give his son-in-law the slip; and
as he had not the courage to avow it, he said nothing.
"Papa has been too much for you," said the lady.
The archdeacon took another turn, and again ejaculated, "Good
heavens!" this time in a very low whisper, but still audible.
"I think I'll go to bed," said the warden, taking up a side candle.
"At any rate, you'll promise me to take no further step without
consultation," said the archdeacon. Mr Harding made no answer, but
slowly proceeded to light his candle.
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