CHAPTER V.
A Morning Visit It was known that Dr.Proudie would immediately have to reappoint to the wardenship of the hospital under the act of Parliament to which allusion has been made; no one imagined that any choice was left to him--no one for a moment thought that he could appoint any other than Mr.Harding.

Mr.Harding himself, when he heard how the matter had been settled, without troubling himself much on the subject, considered it as certain that he would go back to his pleasant house and garden.

And though there would be much that was melancholy, nay, almost heartrending, in such a return, he still was glad that it was to be so.

His daughter might probably be persuaded to return there with him.

She had, indeed, all but promised to do so, though she still entertained an idea that that greatest of mortals, that important atom of humanity, that little god upon earth, Johnny Bold her baby, ought to have a house of his own over his head.
Such being the state of Mr.Harding's mind in the matter, he did not feel any peculiar personal interest in the appointment of Dr.Proudie to the bishopric.