 that
she was braving a powerful audience, but that she was daring to stand on the
strong basis of her own judgment in opposition to her son's. Her proposals had
been waived off by Mr Lyon and Felix; but she had long had the feminine
conviction that if she could get to speak in the right quarter, things might be
different. The daring bit of impromptu about the three Mr Transomes was
immediately suggested by a movement of old Mr Transome to the foreground in a
line with Mr Lingon and Harold; his furred and unusual costume appearing to
indicate a mysterious dignity which she must hasten to include in her appeal.
    And there were reasons that none could have foreseen, which made Mrs Holt's
remonstrance immediately effective. While old Mr Transome stared, very much like
a waxen image in which the expression is a failure, and the rector, accustomed
to female parishioners and complainants, looked on with a smile in his eyes,
Harold said at once, with cordial kindness -
    »I think you are quite right, Mrs Holt. And for my part, I am determined to
do my best for your son, both in the witness-box and elsewhere. Take comfort; if
it is necessary, the king shall be appealed to. And rely upon it, I shall bear
you in mind, as Felix Holt's mother.«
    Rapid thoughts had convinced Harold that in this way he was best commending
himself to Esther.
    »Well, sir,« said Mrs Holt, who was not going to pour forth disproportionate
thanks, »I'm glad to hear you speak so becoming; and if you had been the king
himself, I should have made free to tell you my opinion. For the Bible says, the
king's favour is towards a wise servant; and it's reasonable to think he'd make
all the more account of them as have never been in service, or took wage, which
I never did, and never thought of my son doing; and his father left money,
meaning otherways, so as he might have been a doctor on horseback at this very
minute, instead of being in prison.«
    »What! was he regularly apprenticed to a doctor?« said Mr Lingon, who had
not understood this before.
    »Sir, he was, and most clever, like his father before him, only he turned
contrairy. But as for harming anybody, Felix never meant to harm anybody but
himself and his mother, which he certainly did in respect of his clothes, and
taking to be a low working man, and
