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Mr Harding knew not how to resist, and the disagreeable
order was given. The quad, as it was familiarly called, was a
small quadrangle, open on one side to the river, and surrounded
on the others by the high wall of Mr Harding's garden, by one
gable end of Mr Harding's house, and by the end of the row of
buildings which formed the residences of the bedesmen. It was
flagged all round, and the centre was stoned; small stone
gutters ran from the four corners of the square to a grating in
the centre; and attached to the end of Mr Harding's house was a
conduit with four cocks covered over from the weather, at which
the old men got their water, and very generally performed their
morning toilet. It was a quiet, sombre place, shaded over by the
trees of the warden's garden. On the side towards the river,
there stood a row of stone seats, on which the old men would sit
and gaze at the little fish, as they flitted by in the running
stream. On the other side of the river was a rich, green meadow,
running up to and joining the deanery, and as little open to the
public as the garden of the dean itself. Nothing, therefore,
could be more private than the quad of the hospital; and it was
there that the archdeacon determined to convey to them his sense
of their refractory proceedings.
The servant soon brought in word that the men were
assembled in the quad, and the archdeacon, big with his
purpose, rose to address them.
'Well, warden, of course you're coming,' said he, seeing that
Mr Harding did not prepare to follow him.
'I wish you'd excuse me,' said Mr Harding.
'For heaven's sake, don't let us have division in the camp,'
replied the archdeacon: 'let us have a long pull and a strong
pull, but above all a pull all together; come warden, come;
don't be afraid of your duty.'
Mr Harding was afraid; he was afraid that he was being
led to do that which was not his duty: he was not, however,
strong enough to resist, so he got up and followed his son-in-law.
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