John Bold becomes increasingly troubled by the suffering his reform campaign has caused Eleanor and Harding and attempts to withdraw from the legal action, but the controversy has already attracted the attention of the press and the public and can no longer be easily stopped by one man's change of heart. Harding travels to London and learns from distinguished legal authorities that there are strong grounds for defending his position, yet he comes to understand that a legal victory would not necessarily satisfy his conscience and decides, despite intense opposition from those around him, to resign as warden. Archdeacon Grantly and other defenders of the Church regard the resignation as an unnecessary and foolish surrender, but Harding chooses personal integrity over a generous income and comfortable position and quietly says farewell to the old men whose lives have long been connected with his own. He thereafter lives more modestly but regains his peace of mind, while Eleanor and Bold are reconciled, and the novel closes by suggesting that moral responsibility and fidelity to one's conscience may matter more than winning a public, legal, or institutional battle.
