trouble to go out to her father's, at Plumstead. Her father is the archdeacon, you know. They do say—but her ladyship is your friend!'
'No friend at all; only a very slight acquaintance. She's quite as much above my line as she is above her father's.'
'Well, she is above them all. They say she would hardly as much as speak to the old gentleman.'
'What, her father?'
'No, Mr Harding; he that chanted the Litany just now. There he is, sir, coming out of the deanery.'
They were now standing at the door leading out from one of the transepts, and Mr Harding passed them as they were speaking together. He was a little, withered, shambling old man, with bent shoulders, dressed in knee-breeches and long black gaiters, which hung rather loosely about his poor old legs,—rubbing his hands one over the other as he went. And yet he walked quickly; not tottering as he walked, but with an uncertain, doubtful step. The verger, as Mr Harding passed, put his hand to his head, and Crosbie also raised his hat. Whereupon Mr Harding raised his, and bowed, and turned round as though he were about to speak. Crosbie felt that he had never seen a face on which traits of human kindness were more plainly written. But the old man did not speak. He turned his body half round, and then shambled back, as though ashamed of his intention, and passed on.
'He is of that sort that they make the angels of,' said the verger. 'But they can't make many if they want them all as good as he is. I'm much obliged to you, sir.' And he pocketed the half-crown which Crosbie gave him.
'So that's Lady Dumbello's grandfather,' said Crosbie, to himself, as he walked slowly round the close towards the hospital, by the path which the verger had shown him. He had no great love for Lady Dumbello, who had dared to snub him—even him. 'They may make an angel of the old gentleman,' he continued to say; 'but they'll never succeed in that way with the granddaughter.'
He sauntered slowly on over a little bridge; and at the gate of the hospital he again came upon Mr Harding. 'I was going to venture in,' said he, 'to look at the place. But perhaps I shall be intruding?'
'No, no; by no means,' said Mr Harding. 'Pray come in. I cannot say that I am just at home here. I do not live here,—not now. But I know the ways of the place well, and can make you welcome. That's the warden's house. Perhaps we won't go in so early in the day, as the lady has a very large family. An excellent lady, and a dear friend of mine,—as is her husband.'
'And he is warden, you say?'
'Yes, warden of the hospital. You see the house, sir. Very pretty, isn't it? Very pretty. To my idea it's the prettiest built house I ever saw.'
'I won't go quite so far as that,' said Crosbie.
'But you would if you'd lived there twelve years, as I did. I lived in that house twelve years, and I don't think there's so sweet a spot on the earth's surface. Did you ever see such turf as that?'
'Very nice indeed,' said Crosbie, who began to make a comparison with Mrs Dale's turf at the Small House, and to determine that the Allington turf was better than that of the hospital.
'I had that turf laid down myself. There were borders there when I first came, with hollyhocks, and those sort of things. The turf was an improvement.'
'There's no doubt of that, I should say.'
'The turf was an improvement, certainly. And I planted those shrubs, too. There isn't such a Portugal laurel as that in the county.'
'Were you warden here, sir?' And Crosbie, as he asked the question, remembered that, in his very young days, he had heard of some newspaper quarrel which had taken place about Hiram's hospital at Barchester.
'Yes, sir. I was warden here for twelve years. Dear, dear, dear! If they had put any gentleman here that was not on friendly terms with me it would have made me very unhappy,—very. But, as it is, I go in and out just as I like; almost as much as I did before they— But they didn't turn me out. There were reasons which made it best that I should resign.'
'And you live at the deanery now, Mr Harding?'
'Yes; I live at the deanery now. But I am not dean, you know. My son-in-law, Dr Arabin, is the dean. I have another daughter married in the neighbourhood, and can truly say that my lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.'
Then he took Crosbie in among the old men, into all of whose rooms he went. It was an almshouse for aged men of the city, and before Crosbie had left him Mr Harding had explained all the circumstances of the hospital, and of the way in which he had left it. 'I didn't
