who had winced visibly at the words

‘At any rate I will not if I am one of the servants,’ said Mr Harding. ‘A rose, you know —’















‘Yes, yes,’ said the archdeacon tr90 ageloc, impatient of poetry at such a time. ‘Well, two paid servants, we’ll say; one to look after the men, and the other to look after the money. You and Chadwick are these two servants, and whether either of you be paid too much, or too little, more or less in fact than the founder willed, it’s as clear as daylight that no one can fall foul of either of you for receiving an allotted stipend.’















‘That does seem clear,’ said the bishop,  servants and stipend, which, however, appeared to have caused no uneasiness to the archdeacon.















‘Quite clear,’ said he, ‘and very satisfactory. In point of fact, it being necessary to select such servants for the use of the hospital, the pay to be given to them must depend on the rate of pay for such services, according to their market value at the period in question; and those who manage the hospital must be the only judges of this.’















‘And who does manage the hospital?’ asked the warden . ‘Oh, let them find that out; that’s another question: the action is brought against you and Chadwick; that’s your defence, and a perfect and full defence it is. Now that I think very satisfactory.’















‘Well,’ said the bishop, looking inquiringly up into his friend’s face, who sat silent awhile, and apparently not so well satisfied.















‘And conclusive,’ continued the archdeacon; ‘if they press it to a jury, which they won’t do, no twelve men in England will take five minutes to decide against them.’















‘But according to that’ said Mr Harding , ‘I might as well have sixteen hundred a year as eight, if the managers choose to allot it to me; and as I am one of the managers, if not the chief manager, myself, that can hardly be a just arrangement.’















‘Oh, well; all that’s nothing to the question. The question is, whether this intruding fellow, and a lot of cheating attorneys and pestilent dissenters, are to interfere with an arrangement which everyone knows is essentially just and serviceable to the church. Pray don’t let us be splitting hairs, and that amongst ourselves, or there’ll never be an end of the cause or the cost.’