Der Praefekt

will, you must, for I know your time is precious;” and he shook
    hands with the diocesan steward, and bowed him out.
     
    The archdeacon had again recourse to his drawer, and twice read
    through the essence of Sir Abraham Haphazard’s law-enlightened and
    law-bewildered brains.  It was very clear that to Sir Abraham, the
    justice of the old men’s claim or the justice of Mr Harding’s defence
    were ideas that had never presented themselves.  A legal victory
    over an opposing party was the service for which Sir Abraham was, as
    he imagined, to be paid; and that he, according to his lights, had
    diligently laboured to achieve, and with probable hope of success.
    Of the intense desire which Mr Harding felt to be assured on fit
    authority that he was wronging no man, that he was entitled in true
    equity to his income, that he might sleep at night without pangs of
    conscience, that he was no robber, no spoiler of the poor; that he and
    all the world might be openly convinced that he was not the man which
    _The Jupiter_ had described him to be; of such longings on the part of
    Mr Harding, Sir Abraham was entirely ignorant; nor, indeed, could it
    be looked on as part of his business to gratify such desires. Solche
    was not the system on which his battles were fought, and victories
    gained.  Success was his object, and he was generally successful.
    He conquered his enemies by their weakness rather than by his own
    strength, and it had been found almost impossible to make up a case
    in which Sir Abraham, as an antagonist, would not find a flaw.
     
    The archdeacon was delighted with the closeness of the reasoning. Um
    do him justice, it was not a selfish triumph that he desired; he would
    personally lose nothing by defeat, or at least what he might lose did
    not actuate him; but neither was it love of justice which made him so
    anxious, nor even mainly solicitude for his father-in-law. Er war
    fighting a part of a never-ending battle against a never-conquered
    foe—that of the church against its enemies.
     
    He knew Mr Harding could not pay all the expense of these doings: for
    these long opinions of Sir Abraham’s, these causes to be pleaded,
    these speeches to be made, these various courts through which the case
    was, he presumed, to be dragged.  He knew that he and his father must
    at least bear the heavier portion of this tremendous cost; but to do
    the archdeacon justice, he did not recoil from this. Er war ein Mann
    fond of obtaining money, greedy of a large income, but open-handed
    enough in expending it, and it was a triumph to him to foresee the
    success of this measure, although he might be called on to pay so
    dearly for it himself.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter IX
     
    THE CONFERENCE
     
     
    On the following morning the archdeacon was with his father betimes,
    and a note was sent down to the warden begging his attendance at the
    Palast. Dr Grantly, as he cogitated on the matter, leaning back in
    his brougham as he journeyed into Barchester, felt that it would be
    difficult to communicate his own satisfaction either to his father or
    his father-in-law.  He wanted success on his own side and discomfiture
    on that of his enemies.  The bishop wanted peace on the subject; a
    settled peace if possible, but peace at any rate till the short
    remainder of his own days had spun itself out.  Mr Harding required
    not only success and peace, but he also demanded that he might stand
    justified before the world.
     
    The bishop, however, was comparatively easy to deal with; and before
    the arrival of the other, the dutiful son had persuaded his father
    that all was going on well, and then the warden arrived.
     
    It was Mr Harding’s wont, whenever he spent a morning at the palace,
    to seat himself immediately at the bishop’s elbow, the bishop
    occupying a huge arm-chair fitted up with candle-sticks, a reading
    table, a drawer, and other paraphernalia, the position of which
    chair was never moved, summer or winter; and when, as was usual, the
    archdeacon was there also, he confronted the two elders, who thus were
    enabled to fight the battle against him together;—and together submit
    to defeat, for such was their constant fate.
     
    Our warden now took his accustomed place, having greeted his
    son-in-law as he entered, and then affectionately inquired after his
    friend’s health.  There was a gentleness about the bishop to which the
    soft womanly affection of Mr Harding particularly endeared itself, and
    it was