ource of clerical revenue, and you would do your
best to dishearten those who are most anxious to defend you and uphold
your position. I can fancy nothing more weak, or more wrong. It is
not that you think that there is any justice in these charges, or that
you doubt your own right to the wardenship: you are convinced of your
own honesty, and yet would yield to them through cowardice."

"Cowardice!" said the bishop, expostulating. Mr Harding sat unmoved,
gazing on his son-in-law.

"Well; would it not be cowardice? Would he not do so because he is
afraid to endure the evil things which will be falsely spoken of him?
Would that not be cowardice? And now let us see the extent of the
evil which you dread. The _Jupiter_ publishes an article which a
great many, no doubt, will read; but of those who understand the
subject how many will believe _The Jupiter_? Everyone knows what its
object is: it has taken up the case against Lord Guildford and against
the Dean of Rochester, and that against half a dozen bishops; and does
not everyone know that it would take up any case of the kind, right
or wrong, false or true, with known justice or known injustice, if by
doing so it could further its own views? Does not all the world know
this of _The Jupiter_? Who that really knows you will think the worse
of you for what _The Jupiter_ says? And why care for those who do not
know you? I will say nothing of your own comfort, but I do say that
you could not be justified in throwing up, in a fit of passion, for
such it would be, the only maintenance that Eleanor has; and if you
did so, if you really did vacate the wardenship, and submit to ruin,
what would that profit you? If you have no future right to the
income, you have had no past right to it; and the very fact of your
abandoning your position would create a demand for repayment of that
which you have already received and spent."

The poor warden groaned as he sat perfectly still, looking up at the
hard-hearted orator who thus tormented him, and the bishop echoed the
sound faintly from behind his hands; but the archdeacon cared little
for such signs of weakness, and completed his exhortation.

"But let us suppose the office to be left vacant, and that your own
troubles concerning it were over; would that satisfy you? Are your
only aspirations in the matter confined to yourself and family? I
know they are not. I know you are as anxious as any of us for the
church to whic