Such a contest would give no comfort to Mr Harding's doubts.

He was not so anxious to prove himself right, as to be so.
I have said before that Dr Grantly was the working man of the diocese, and that his father the bishop was somewhat inclined to an idle life.
So it was; but the bishop, though he had never been an active man, was one whose qualities had rendered him dear to all who knew him.

He was the very opposite to his son; he was a bland and a kind old man, opposed by every feeling to authoritative demonstrations and episcopal ostentation.

It was perhaps well for him, in his situation, that his son had early in life been able to do that which he could not well do when he was younger, and which he could not have done at all now that he was over seventy.

The bishop knew how to entertain the clergy of his diocese, to talk easy small-talk with the rectors' wives, and put curates at their ease; but it required the strong hand of the archdeacon to deal with such as were refractory either in their doctrines or their lives.
The bishop and Mr Harding loved each other warmly.