Konrad Gesner

The book centers on the character of Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity, whose charitable income far exceeds the purpose for which it was intended. Young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he considers to be an abuse of privilege, despite being in love with Mr. Harding's daughter Eleanor. Trollope uses theft of monies to explore and illuminate the universal complexities of human motivation and social morality. How could a man of sterling character, the kind and elderly Mr. Septimus Harding, warden of Hiram's Hospital, an institution reliant on an ancient charitable bequest in order to sustain itself, steal Church funds?