CHAPTER VIII.
The Ex-warden Rejoices in His Probable Return to the Hospital Among the ladies in Barchester who have hitherto acknowledged Mr.
Slope as their spiritual director must not be reckoned either the Widow Bold or her sister-in-law.

On the first outbreak of the wrath of the denizens of the close, none had been more animated against the intruder than these two ladies.

And this was natural.

Who could be so proud of the musical distinction of their own cathedral as the favourite daughter of the precentor?
Who would be so likely to resent an insult offered to the old choir?
And in such matters Miss Bold and her sister-in-law had but one opinion.
This wrath, however, has in some degree been mitigated, and I regret to say that these ladies allowed Mr.Slope to be his own apologist.
About a fortnight after the sermon had been preached, they were both of them not a little surprised by hearing Mr.Slope announced, as the page in buttons opened Mrs.Bold's drawing-room door.

Indeed, what living man could, by a mere morning visit, have surprised them more?
Here was the great enemy of all that was good in Barchester coming into their own drawing-room, and they had no strong arm, no ready tongue, near at hand for their protection.