“His lordship has summoned me on most important diocesan business,” said Mr. Slope, glancing with uneasy eye at Dr. Proudie; “my leaving him at the present moment is, I fear, impossible.”

“Do you bandy words with me, you ungrateful man?” said the lady.  “My lord, is Mr. Slope to leave this room, or am I?”

His lordship twiddled his thumbs, and then proclaimed himself a Slopeite.

“Why, my dear,” said he, “Mr. Slope and I are very busy.”

That was all.  There was nothing more necessary.  Mr. Slope saw at once the full amount of his gain, and turned on the vanquished lady a look of triumph which she never forgot and never forgave.

Mrs. Proudie without further parley left the room; and then followed a close conference between the new allies.  The chaplain told the bishop that the world gave him credit for being under the governance of his wife, and the bishop pledged himself with Mr. Slope’s assistance to change his courses.

IV.—­Mr. Slope Bids Farewell

As it proved, however, Mr. Slope had not a chance against Mrs. Proudie.  Not only could she stun the poor bishop by her midnight anger when the two were alone, but she could assuage him, if she so willed, by daily indulgences.

On the death of Dr. Trefoil, the dean of Barchester, Mr. Slope had not shrunk from urging the bishop to recommend his chaplain for the post.

“How could you think of making such a creature as that dean of Barchester?” said Mrs. Proudie to her now submissive husband.

“Why, my dear,” said he, “it appeared to me that you and Mr. Slope did not get on as well as you used to do, and therefore I thought that if he got this place, and so ceased to be my chaplain, you might be pleased at such an arrangement.”

Mrs. Proudie laughed aloud.

“Oh yes, my dear, of course he’ll cease to be your chaplain,” said she.  “After what has passed, that must be a matter of course.  I couldn’t for a moment think of living in the same house with such a man.  Dean, indeed!  The man has gone mad with arrogance.”

The bishop said nothing further to excuse either himself or his family, and having shown himself passive and docile was again taken into favour, and spent the pleasantest evening he had had in his own house for a long time.

Mr. Slope did not get the deanery, though for a week he was decidedly the favourite—­owing to the backing he received from the Jupiter.  And Mr. Quiverful was after all appointed to the hospital, with the complete acquiescence of Mr. Harding.

Mr. Harding might have had the deanery, but he declined the office on the ground of his age and his inability to fit himself into new duties.  In vain the archdeacon threatened, and in vain he coaxed; his father-in-law could not be made to accept it.