"Expect that people should lie?"
"I don't know about lies. If people have told lies I have not seen them or heard them. I don't think the Bishop has lied."
"I don't mean the Bishop; though I do think that he has shown a great want of what I may call liberality towards a clergyman in his diocese."
"No doubt he thinks you have been wrong. By liberality you mean sympathy. Why should you expect him to sympathise with your wrong-doing?"
"What have I done wrong?"
"You have countenanced immorality and deceit in a brother clergyman."
"I deny it," said the Doctor, rising up impetuously from his chair.
"Then I do not understand the position, Dr. Wortle. That is all I can say."
"To my thinking, Mr. Puddicombe, I never came across a better man than Mr. Peacocke in my life."
"I cannot make comparisons. As to the best man I ever met in my life I might have to acknowledge that even he had done wrong in certain circumstances. As the matter is forced upon me, I have to express my opinion that a great sin was committed both by the man and by the woman. You not only condone the sin, but declare both by your words and deeds that you sympathise with the sin as well as with the sinners. You have no right to expect that the Bishop will sympathise with you in that;—nor can it be but that in such a country as this the voices of many will be loud against you."