He would probably have preferred a second clerical son-in-law, for Mr Harding, also, is attached to his order; and, failing in that, he would at any rate have wished that so near a connection should have thought alike with him on church matters.

He would not, however, reject the man his daughter loved because he differed on such subjects with himself.
Hitherto Bold had taken no steps in the matter in any way annoying to Mr Harding personally.

Some months since, after a severe battle, which cost him not a little money, he gained a victory over a certain old turnpike woman in the neighbourhood, of whose charges another old woman had complained to him.

He got the Act of Parliament relating to the trust, found that his _protegee_ had been wrongly taxed, rode through the gate himself, paying the toll, then brought an action against the gate-keeper, and proved that all people coming up a certain by-lane, and going down a certain other by-lane, were toll-free.

The fame of his success spread widely abroad, and he began to be looked on as the upholder of the rights of the poor of Barchester.