thoughthe
eyes
were
nothing
more
than
clear
windows
where
observation
sat
laughingly
.
He
was
certainly
an
affectionate
fellow
,
and
as
he
had
grown
from
boy
to
man
,
he
had
grown
in
love
with
his
old
playmate
,
notwithstanding
that
share
in
the
higher
education
of
the
country
which
had
exalted
his
views
of
rank
and
income
.
"
When
a
man
is
not
loved
,
it
is
no
use
for
him
to
say
that
he
could
be
a
better
fellow
—
could
do
anything
—
I
mean
,
if
he
were
sure
of
being
loved
in
return
.
"
"
Not
of
the
least
use
in
the
world
for
him
to
say
he
could
be
better
.
Might
,
could
,
would
—
they
are
contemptible
auxiliaries
.
"
"
I
do
n't
see
how
a
man
is
to
be
good
for
much
unless
he
has
some
one
woman
to
love
him
dearly
.
"
"
I
think
the
goodness
should
come
before
he
expects
that
.
"
"
You
know
better
,
Mary
.
Women
do
n't
love
men
for
their
goodness
.
"
"
Perhaps
not
.
But
if
they
love
them
,
they
never
think
them
bad
.
"
"
It
is
hardly
fair
to
say
I
am
bad
.
"
"
I
said
nothing
at
all
about
you
.
"
"
I
never
shall
be
good
for
anything
,
Mary
,
if
you
will
not
say
that
you
love
me
—
if
you
will
not
promise
to
marry
me
—
I
mean
,
when
I
am
able
to
marry
.
"
"
If
I
did
love
you
,
I
would
not
marry
you
:
I
would
certainly
not
promise
ever
to
marry
you
.
"
"
I
think
that
is
quite
wicked
,
Mary
.
If
you
love
me
,
you
ought
to
promise
to
marry
me
.
"
"
On
the
contrary
,
I
think
it
would
be
wicked
in
me
to
marry
you
even
if
I
did
love
you
.
"
"
You
mean
,
just
as
I
am
,
without
any
means
of
maintaining
a
wife
.
Of
course
:
I
am
but
three-and-twenty
.
"
"
In
that
last
point
you
will
alter
.
But
I
am
not
so
sure
of
any
other
alteration
.
My
father
says
an
idle
man
ought
not
to
exist
,
much
less
,
be
married
.
"
"
Then
I
am
to
blow
my
brains
out
?
"
"
No
;
on
the
whole
I
should
think
you
would
do
better
to
pass
your
examination
.
I
have
heard
Mr.
Farebrother
say
it
is
disgracefully
easy
.
"
"
That
is
all
very
fine
.
Anything
is
easy
to
him
.
Not
that
cleverness
has
anything
to
do
with
it
.
I
am
ten
times
cleverer
than
many
men
who
pass
.
"
"
Dear
me
!
"
said
Mary
,
unable
to
repress
her
sarcasm
;
"
that
accounts
for
the
curates
like
Mr.
Crowse
.
Divide
your
cleverness
by
ten
,
and
the
quotient
—
dear
me
!
—
is
able
to
take
a
degree
.
But
that
only
shows
you
are
ten
times
more
idle
than
the
others
.
"
"
Well
,
if
I
did
pass
,
you
would
not
want
me
to
go
into
the
Church
?
"
"
That
is
not
the
question
—
what
I
want
you
to
do
.
You
have
a
conscience
of
your
own
,
I
suppose
.
There
!
there
is
Mr.
Lydgate
.
I
must
go
and
tell
my
uncle
.
"
"
Mary
,
"
said
Fred
,
seizing
her
hand
as
she
rose
;
"
if
you
will
not
give
me
some
encouragement
,
I
shall
get
worse
instead
of
better
.
"
"
I
will
not
give
you
any
encouragement
,
"
said
Mary
,
reddening
.
"
Your
friends
would
dislike
it
,
and
so
would
mine
.
My
father
would
think
it
a
disgrace
to
me
if
I
accepted
a
man
who
got
into
debt
,
and
would
not
work
!
"
Fred
was
stung
,
and
released
her
hand
.
She
walked
to
the
door
,
but
there
she
turned
and
said
:
"
Fred
,
you
have
always
been
so
good
,
so
generous
to
me
.
I
am
not
ungrateful
.
But
never
speak
to
me
in
that
way
again
.
"
"
Very
well
,
"
said
Fred
,
sulkily
,
taking
up
his
hat
and
whip
.
His
complexion
showed
patches
of
pale
pink
and
dead
white
.
Like
many
a
plucked
idle
young
gentleman
,
he
was
thoroughly
in
love
,
and
with
a
plain
girl
,
who
had
no
money
!
But
having
Mr.
Featherstone
's
land
in
the
background
,
and
a
persuasion
that
,
let
Mary
say
what
she
would
,
she
really
did
care
for
him
,
Fred
was
not
utterly
in
despair
.
When
he
got
home
,
he
gave
four
of
the
twenties
to
his
mother
,
asking
her
to
keep
them
for
him
.
"
I
do
n't
want
to
spend
that
money
,
mother
.
I
want
it
to
pay
a
debt
with
.
So
keep
it
safe
away
from
my
fingers
.
"
"
Bless
you
,
my
dear
,
"
said
Mrs.
Vincy
.
She
doted
on
her
eldest
son
and
her
youngest
girl
(
a
child
of
six
)
,
whom
others
thought
her
two
naughtiest
children
.
The
mother
's
eyes
are
not
always
deceived
in
their
partiality
:
she
at
least
can
best
judge
who
is
the
tender
,
filial-hearted
child
.
And
Fred
was
certainly
very
fond
of
his
mother
.
Perhaps
it
was
his
fondness
for
another
person
also
that
made
him
particularly
anxious
to
take
some
security
against
his
own
liability
to
spend
the
hundred
pounds
.
For
the
creditor
to
whom
he
owed
a
hundred
and
sixty
held
a
firmer
security
in
the
shape
of
a
bill
signed
by
Mary
's
father
.
CHAPTER
XV
.
"
Black
eyes
you
have
left
,
you
say
,
Blue
eyes
fail
to
draw
you
;
Yet
you
seem
more
rapt
to-day
,
Than
of
old
we
saw
you
.
"
Oh
,
I
track
the
fairest
fair
Through
new
haunts
of
pleasure
;
Footprints
here
and
echoes
there
Guide
me
to
my
treasure
:
"
Lo
!
she
turns
—
immortal
youth
Wrought
to
mortal
stature
,
Fresh
as
starlight
's
aged
truth
—
Many-named
Nature
!
"
A
great
historian
,
as
he
insisted
on
calling
himself
,
who
had
the
happiness
to
be
dead
a
hundred
and
twenty
years
ago
,
and
so
to
take
his
place
among
the
colossi
whose
huge
legs
our
living
pettiness
is
observed
to
walk
under
,
glories
in
his
copious
remarks
and
digressions
as
the
least
imitable
part
of
his
work
,
and
especially
in
those
initial
chapters
to
the
successive
books
of
his
history
,
where
he
seems
to
bring
his
armchair
to
the
proscenium
and
chat
with
us
in
all
the
lusty
ease
of
his
fine
English
.
But
Fielding
lived
when
the
days
were
longer
(
for
time
,
like
money
,
is
measured
by
our
needs
)
,
when
summer
afternoons
were
spacious
,
and
the
clock
ticked
slowly
in
the
winter
evenings
.
We
belated
historians
must
not
linger
after
his
example
;
and
if
we
did
so
,
it
is
probable
that
our
chat
would
be
thin
and
eager
,
as
if
delivered
from
a
campstool
in
a
parrot-house
.
I
at
least
have
so
much
to
do
in
unraveling
certain
human
lots
,
and
seeing
how
they
were
woven
and
interwoven
,
that
all
the
light
I
can
command
must
be
concentrated
on
this
particular
web
,
and
not
dispersed
over
that
tempting
range
of
relevancies
called
the
universe
.
At
present
I
have
to
make
the
new
settler
Lydgate
better
known
to
any
one
interested
in
him
than
he
could
possibly
be
even
to
those
who
had
seen
the
most
of
him
since
his
arrival
in
Middlemarch
.
For
surely
all
must
admit
that
a
man
may
be
puffed
and
belauded
,
envied
,
ridiculed
,
counted
upon
as
a
tool
and
fallen
in
love
with
,
or
at
least
selected
as
a
future
husband
,
and
yet
remain
virtually
unknown
—
known
merely
as
a
cluster
of
signs
for
his
neighbors
'
false
suppositions
.
There
was
a
general
impression
,
however
,
that
Lydgate
was
not
altogether
a
common
country
doctor
,
and
in
Middlemarch
at
that
time
such
an
impression
was
significant
of
great
things
being
expected
from
him
.
For
everybody
's
family
doctor
was
remarkably
clever
,
and
was
understood
to
have
immeasurable
skill
in
the
management
and
training
of
the
most
skittish
or
vicious
diseases
.
The
evidence
of
his
cleverness
was
of
the
higher
intuitive
order
,
lying
in
his
lady-patients
'
immovable
conviction
,
and
was
unassailable
by
any
objection
except
that
their
intuitions
were
opposed
by
others
equally
strong
;
each
lady
who
saw
medical
truth
in
Wrench
and
"
the
strengthening
treatment
"
regarding
Toller
and
"
the
lowering
system
"
as
medical
perdition
.
For
the
heroic
times
of
copious
bleeding
and
blistering
had
not
yet
departed
,
still
less
the
times
of
thorough-going
theory
,
when
disease
in
general
was
called
by
some
bad
name
,
and
treated
accordingly
without
shilly-shally
—
as
if
,
for
example
,
it
were
to
be
called
insurrection
,
which
must
not
be
fired
on
with
blank-cartridge
,
but
have
its
blood
drawn
at
once
.
The
strengtheners
and
the
lowerers
were
all
"
clever
"
men
in
somebody
's
opinion
,
which
is
really
as
much
as
can
be
said
for
any
living
talents
.
Nobody
's
imagination
had
gone
so
far
as
to
conjecture
that
Mr.
Lydgate
could
know
as
much
as
Dr.
Sprague
and
Dr.
Minchin
,
the
two
physicians
,
who
alone
could
offer
any
hope
when
danger
was
extreme
,
and
when
the
smallest
hope
was
worth
a
guinea
.
Still
,
I
repeat
,
there
was
a
general
impression
that
Lydgate
was
something
rather
more
uncommon
than
any
general
practitioner
in
Middlemarch
.
And
this
was
true
.
He
was
but
seven-and-twenty
,
an
age
at
which
many
men
are
not
quite
common
—
at
which
they
are
hopeful
of
achievement
,
resolute
in
avoidance
,
thinking
that
Mammon
shall
never
put
a
bit
in
their
mouths
and
get
astride
their
backs
,
but
rather
that
Mammon
,
if
they
have
anything
to
do
with
him
,
shall
draw
their
chariot
.
He
had
been
left
an
orphan
when
he
was
fresh
from
a
public
school
.
His
father
,
a
military
man
,
had
made
but
little
provision
for
three
children
,
and
when
the
boy
Tertius
asked
to
have
a
medical
education
,
it
seemed
easier
to
his
guardians
to
grant
his
request
by
apprenticing
him
to
a
country
practitioner
than
to
make
any
objections
on
the
score
of
family
dignity
.
He
was
one
of
the
rarer
lads
who
early
get
a
decided
bent
and
make
up
their
minds
that
there
is
something
particular
in
life
which
they
would
like
to
do
for
its
own
sake
,
and
not
because
their
fathers
did
it
.
Most
of
us
who
turn
to
any
subject
with
love
remember
some
morning
or
evening
hour
when
we
got
on
a
high
stool
to
reach
down
an
untried
volume
,
or
sat
with
parted
lips
listening
to
a
new
talker
,
or
for
very
lack
of
books
began
to
listen
to
the
voices
within
,
as
the
first
traceable
beginning
of
our
love
.
Something
of
that
sort
happened
to
Lydgate
.
He
was
a
quick
fellow
,
and
when
hot
from
play
,
would
toss
himself
in
a
corner
,
and
in
five
minutes
be
deep
in
any
sort
of
book
that
he
could
lay
his
hands
on
:
if
it
were
Rasselas
or
Gulliver
,
so
much
the
better
,
but
Bailey
's
Dictionary
would
do
,
or
the
Bible
with
the
Apocrypha
in
it
.
Something
he
must
read
,
when
he
was
not
riding
the
pony
,
or
running
and
hunting
,
or
listening
to
the
talk
of
men
.
All
this
was
true
of
him
at
ten
years
of
age
;
he
had
then
read
through
"
Chrysal
,
or
the
Adventures
of
a
Guinea
,
"
which
was
neither
milk
for
babes
,
nor
any
chalky
mixture
meant
to
pass
for
milk
,
and
it
had
already
occurred
to
him
that
books
were
stuff
,
and
that
life
was
stupid
.
His
school
studies
had
not
much
modified
that
opinion
,
for
though
he
"
did
"
his
classics
and
mathematics
,
he
was
not
pre-eminent
in
them
.
It
was
said
of
him
,
that
Lydgate
could
do
anything
he
liked
,
but
he
had
certainly
not
yet
liked
to
do
anything
remarkable
.
He
was
a
vigorous
animal
with
a
ready
understanding
,
but
no
spark
had
yet
kindled
in
him
an
intellectual
passion
;
knowledge
seemed
to
him
a
very
superficial
affair
,
easily
mastered
:
judging
from
the
conversation
of
his
elders
,
he
had
apparently
got
already
more
than
was
necessary
for
mature
life
.
Probably
this
was
not
an
exceptional
result
of
expensive
teaching
at
that
period
of
short-waisted
coats
,
and
other
fashions
which
have
not
yet
recurred
.
But
,
one
vacation
,
a
wet
day
sent
him
to
the
small
home
library
to
hunt
once
more
for
a
book
which
might
have
some
freshness
for
him
:
in
vain
!
unless
,
indeed
,
he
took
down
a
dusty
row
of
volumes
with
gray-paper
backs
and
dingy
labels
—
the
volumes
of
an
old
Cyclopaedia
which
he
had
never
disturbed
.
It
would
at
least
be
a
novelty
to
disturb
them
.
They
were
on
the
highest
shelf
,
and
he
stood
on
a
chair
to
get
them
down
.
But
he
opened
the
volume
which
he
first
took
from
the
shelf
:
somehow
,
one
is
apt
to
read
in
a
makeshift
attitude
,
just
where
it
might
seem
inconvenient
to
do
so
.
The
page
he
opened
on
was
under
the
head
of
Anatomy
,
and
the
first
passage
that
drew
his
eyes
was
on
the
valves
of
the
heart
.
He
was
not
much
acquainted
with
valves
of
any
sort
,
but
he
knew
that
valvae
were
folding-doors
,
and
through
this
crevice
came
a
sudden
light
startling
him
with
his
first
vivid
notion
of
finely
adjusted
mechanism
in
the
human
frame
.
A
liberal
education
had
of
course
left
him
free
to
read
the
indecent
passages
in
the
school
classics
,
but
beyond
a
general
sense
of
secrecy
and
obscenity
in
connection
with
his
internal
structure
,
had
left
his
imagination
quite
unbiassed
,
so
that
for
anything
he
knew
his
brains
lay
in
small
bags
at
his
temples
,
and
he
had
no
more
thought
of
representing
to
himself
how
his
blood
circulated
than
how
paper
served
instead
of
gold
.
But
the
moment
of
vocation
had
come
,
and
before
he
got
down
from
his
chair
,
the
world
was
made
new
to
him
by
a
presentiment
of
endless
processes
filling
the
vast
spaces
planked
out
of
his
sight
by
that
wordy
ignorance
which
he
had
supposed
to
be
knowledge
.
From
that
hour
Lydgate
felt
the
growth
of
an
intellectual
passion
.
We
are
not
afraid
of
telling
over
and
over
again
how
a
man
comes
to
fall
in
love
with
a
woman
and
be
wedded
to
her
,
or
else
be
fatally
parted
from
her
.
Is
it
due
to
excess
of
poetry
or
of
stupidity
that
we
are
never
weary
of
describing
what
King
James
called
a
woman
's
"
makdom
and
her
fairnesse
,
"
never
weary
of
listening
to
the
twanging
of
the
old
Troubadour
strings
,
and
are
comparatively
uninterested
in
that
other
kind
of
"
makdom
and
fairnesse
"
which
must
be
wooed
with
industrious
thought
and
patient
renunciation
of
small
desires
?
In
the
story
of
this
passion
,
too
,
the
development
varies
:
sometimes
it
is
the
glorious
marriage
,
sometimes
frustration
and
final
parting
.
And
not
seldom
the
catastrophe
is
bound
up
with
the
other
passion
,
sung
by
the
Troubadours
.
For
in
the
multitude
of
middle-aged
men
who
go
about
their
vocations
in
a
daily
course
determined
for
them
much
in
the
same
way
as
the
tie
of
their
cravats
,
there
is
always
a
good
number
who
once
meant
to
shape
their
own
deeds
and
alter
the
world
a
little
.
The
story
of
their
coming
to
be
shapen
after
the
average
and
fit
to
be
packed
by
the
gross
,
is
hardly
ever
told
even
in
their
consciousness
;
for
perhaps
their
ardor
in
generous
unpaid
toil
cooled
as
imperceptibly
as
the
ardor
of
other
youthful
loves
,
till
one
day
their
earlier
self
walked
like
a
ghost
in
its
old
home
and
made
the
new
furniture
ghastly
.
Nothing
in
the
world
more
subtle
than
the
process
of
their
gradual
change
!
In
the
beginning
they
inhaled
it
unknowingly
:
you
and
I
may
have
sent
some
of
our
breath
towards
infecting
them
,
when
we
uttered
our
conforming
falsities
or
drew
our
silly
conclusions
:
or
perhaps
it
came
with
the
vibrations
from
a
woman
's
glance
.
Lydgate
did
not
mean
to
be
one
of
those
failures
,
and
there
was
the
better
hope
of
him
because
his
scientific
interest
soon
took
the
form
of
a
professional
enthusiasm
:
he
had
a
youthful
belief
in
his
bread-winning
work
,
not
to
be
stifled
by
that
initiation
in
makeshift
called
his
'
prentice
days
;
and
he
carried
to
his
studies
in
London
,
Edinburgh
,
and
Paris
,
the
conviction
that
the
medical
profession
as
it
might
be
was
the
finest
in
the
world
;
presenting
the
most
perfect
interchange
between
science
and
art
;
offering
the
most
direct
alliance
between
intellectual
conquest
and
the
social
good
.
Lydgate
's
nature
demanded
this
combination
:
he
was
an
emotional
creature
,
with
a
flesh-and-blood
sense
of
fellowship
which
withstood
all
the
abstractions
of
special
study
.
He
cared
not
only
for
"
cases
,
"
but
for
John
and
Elizabeth
,
especially
Elizabeth
.
There
was
another
attraction
in
his
profession
:
it
wanted
reform
,
and
gave
a
man
an
opportunity
for
some
indignant
resolve
to
reject
its
venal
decorations
and
other
humbug
,
and
to
be
the
possessor
of
genuine
though
undemanded
qualifications
.
He
went
to
study
in
Paris
with
the
determination
that
when
he
came
home
again
he
would
settle
in
some
provincial
town
as
a
general
practitioner
,
and
resist
the
irrational
severance
between
medical
and
surgical
knowledge
in
the
interest
of
his
own
scientific
pursuits
,
as
well
as
of
the
general
advance
:
he
would
keep
away
from
the
range
of
London
intrigues
,
jealousies
,
and
social
truckling
,
and
win
celebrity
,
however
slowly
,
as
Jenner
had
done
,
by
the
independent
value
of
his
work
.
For
it
must
be
remembered
that
this
was
a
dark
period
;
and
in
spite
of
venerable
colleges
which
used
great
efforts
to
secure
purity
of
knowledge
by
making
it
scarce
,
and
to
exclude
error
by
a
rigid
exclusiveness
in
relation
to
fees
and
appointments
,
it
happened
that
very
ignorant
young
gentlemen
were
promoted
in
town
,
and
many
more
got
a
legal
right
to
practise
over
large
areas
in
the
country
.
Also
,
the
high
standard
held
up
to
the
public
mind
by
the
College
of
Physicians
,
which
gave
its
peculiar
sanction
to
the
expensive
and
highly
rarefied
medical
instruction
obtained
by
graduates
of
Oxford
and
Cambridge
,
did
not
hinder
quackery
from
having
an
excellent
time
of
it
;
for
since
professional
practice
chiefly
consisted
in
giving
a
great
many
drugs
,
the
public
inferred
that
it
might
be
better
off
with
more
drugs
still
,
if
they
could
only
be
got
cheaply
,
and
hence
swallowed
large
cubic
measures
of
physic
prescribed
by
unscrupulous
ignorance
which
had
taken
no
degrees
.
Considering
that
statistics
had
not
yet
embraced
a
calculation
as
to
the
number
of
ignorant
or
canting
doctors
which
absolutely
must
exist
in
the
teeth
of
all
changes
,
it
seemed
to
Lydgate
that
a
change
in
the
units
was
the
most
direct
mode
of
changing
the
numbers
.
He
meant
to
be
a
unit
who
would
make
a
certain
amount
of
difference
towards
that
spreading
change
which
would
one
day
tell
appreciably
upon
the
averages
,
and
in
the
mean
time
have
the
pleasure
of
making
an
advantageous
difference
to
the
viscera
of
his
own
patients
.
But
he
did
not
simply
aim
at
a
more
genuine
kind
of
practice
than
was
common
.
He
was
ambitious
of
a
wider
effect
:
he
was
fired
with
the
possibility
that
he
might
work
out
the
proof
of
an
anatomical
conception
and
make
a
link
in
the
chain
of
discovery
.
Does
it
seem
incongruous
to
you
that
a
Middlemarch
surgeon
should
dream
of
himself
as
a
discoverer
?
Most
of
us
,
indeed
,
know
little
of
the
great
originators
until
they
have
been
lifted
up
among
the
constellations
and
already
rule
our
fates
.
But
that
Herschel
,
for
example
,
who
"
broke
the
barriers
of
the
heavens
"
—
did
he
not
once
play
a
provincial
church-organ
,
and
give
music-lessons
to
stumbling
pianists
?
Each
of
those
Shining
Ones
had
to
walk
on
the
earth
among
neighbors
who
perhaps
thought
much
more
of
his
gait
and
his
garments
than
of
anything
which
was
to
give
him
a
title
to
everlasting
fame
:
each
of
them
had
his
little
local
personal
history
sprinkled
with
small
temptations
and
sordid
cares
,
which
made
the
retarding
friction
of
his
course
towards
final
companionship
with
the
immortals
.
Lydgate
was
not
blind
to
the
dangers
of
such
friction
,
but
he
had
plenty
of
confidence
in
his
resolution
to
avoid
it
as
far
as
possible
:
being
seven-and-twenty
,
he
felt
himself
experienced
.
And
he
was
not
going
to
have
his
vanities
provoked
by
contact
with
the
showy
worldly
successes
of
the
capital
,
but
to
live
among
people
who
could
hold
no
rivalry
with
that
pursuit
of
a
great
idea
which
was
to
be
a
twin
object
with
the
assiduous
practice
of
his
profession
.
There
was
fascination
in
the
hope
that
the
two
purposes
would
illuminate
each
other
:
the
careful
observation
and
inference
which
was
his
daily
work
,
the
use
of
the
lens
to
further
his
judgment
in
special
cases
,
would
further
his
thought
as
an
instrument
of
larger
inquiry
.
Was
not
this
the
typical
pre-eminence
of
his
profession
?
He
would
be
a
good
Middlemarch
doctor
,
and
by
that
very
means
keep
himself
in
the
track
of
far-reaching
investigation
.
On
one
point
he
may
fairly
claim
approval
at
this
particular
stage
of
his
career
:
he
did
not
mean
to
imitate
those
philanthropic
models
who
make
a
profit
out
of
poisonous
pickles
to
support
themselves
while
they
are
exposing
adulteration
,
or
hold
shares
in
a
gambling-hell
that
they
may
have
leisure
to
represent
the
cause
of
public
morality
.
He
intended
to
begin
in
his
own
case
some
particular
reforms
which
were
quite
certainly
within
his
reach
,
and
much
less
of
a
problem
than
the
demonstrating
of
an
anatomical
conception
.
One
of
these
reforms
was
to
act
stoutly
on
the
strength
of
a
recent
legal
decision
,
and
simply
prescribe
,
without
dispensing
drugs
or
taking
percentage
from
druggists
.
This
was
an
innovation
for
one
who
had
chosen
to
adopt
the
style
of
general
practitioner
in
a
country
town
,
and
would
be
felt
as
offensive
criticism
by
his
professional
brethren
.
But
Lydgate
meant
to
innovate
in
his
treatment
also
,
and
he
was
wise
enough
to
see
that
the
best
security
for
his
practising
honestly
according
to
his
belief
was
to
get
rid
of
systematic
temptations
to
the
contrary
.
Perhaps
that
was
a
more
cheerful
time
for
observers
and
theorizers
than
the
present
;
we
are
apt
to
think
it
the
finest
era
of
the
world
when
America
was
beginning
to
be
discovered
,
when
a
bold
sailor
,
even
if
he
were
wrecked
,
might
alight
on
a
new
kingdom
;
and
about
1829
the
dark
territories
of
Pathology
were
a
fine
America
for
a
spirited
young
adventurer
.
Lydgate
was
ambitious
above
all
to
contribute
towards
enlarging
the
scientific
,
rational
basis
of
his
profession
.
The
more
he
became
interested
in
special
questions
of
disease
,
such
as
the
nature
of
fever
or
fevers
,
the
more
keenly
he
felt
the
need
for
that
fundamental
knowledge
of
structure
which
just
at
the
beginning
of
the
century
had
been
illuminated
by
the
brief
and
glorious
career
of
Bichat
,
who
died
when
he
was
only
one-and-thirty
,
but
,
like
another
Alexander
,
left
a
realm
large
enough
for
many
heirs
.
That
great
Frenchman
first
carried
out
the
conception
that
living
bodies
,
fundamentally
considered
,
are
not
associations
of
organs
which
can
be
understood
by
studying
them
first
apart
,
and
then
as
it
were
federally
;
but
must
be
regarded
as
consisting
of
certain
primary
webs
or
tissues
,
out
of
which
the
various
organs
—
brain
,
heart
,
lungs
,
and
so
on
—
are
compacted
,
as
the
various
accommodations
of
a
house
are
built
up
in
various
proportions
of
wood
,
iron
,
stone
,
brick
,
zinc
,
and
the
rest
,
each
material
having
its
peculiar
composition
and
proportions
.
No
man
,
one
sees
,
can
understand
and
estimate
the
entire
structure
or
its
parts
—
what
are
its
frailties
and
what
its
repairs
,
without
knowing
the
nature
of
the
materials
.
And
the
conception
wrought
out
by
Bichat
,
with
his
detailed
study
of
the
different
tissues
,
acted
necessarily
on
medical
questions
as
the
turning
of
gas-light
would
act
on
a
dim
,
oil-lit
street
,
showing
new
connections
and
hitherto
hidden
facts
of
structure
which
must
be
taken
into
account
in
considering
the
symptoms
of
maladies
and
the
action
of
medicaments
.
But
results
which
depend
on
human
conscience
and
intelligence
work
slowly
,
and
now
at
the
end
of
1829
,
most
medical
practice
was
still
strutting
or
shambling
along
the
old
paths
,
and
there
was
still
scientific
work
to
be
done
which
might
have
seemed
to
be
a
direct
sequence
of
Bichat
's
.
This
great
seer
did
not
go
beyond
the
consideration
of
the
tissues
as
ultimate
facts
in
the
living
organism
,
marking
the
limit
of
anatomical
analysis
;
but
it
was
open
to
another
mind
to
say
,
have
not
these
structures
some
common
basis
from
which
they
have
all
started
,
as
your
sarsnet
,
gauze
,
net
,
satin
,
and
velvet
from
the
raw
cocoon
?
Here
would
be
another
light
,
as
of
oxy-hydrogen
,
showing
the
very
grain
of
things
,
and
revising
all
former
explanations
.
Of
this
sequence
to
Bichat
's
work
,
already
vibrating
along
many
currents
of
the
European
mind
,
Lydgate
was
enamoured
;
he
longed
to
demonstrate
the
more
intimate
relations
of
living
structure
,
and
help
to
define
men
's
thought
more
accurately
after
the
true
order
.
The
work
had
not
yet
been
done
,
but
only
prepared
for
those
who
knew
how
to
use
the
preparation
.
What
was
the
primitive
tissue
?
In
that
way
Lydgate
put
the
question
—
not
quite
in
the
way
required
by
the
awaiting
answer
;
but
such
missing
of
the
right
word
befalls
many
seekers
.
And
he
counted
on
quiet
intervals
to
be
watchfully
seized
,
for
taking
up
the
threads
of
investigation
—
on
many
hints
to
be
won
from
diligent
application
,
not
only
of
the
scalpel
,
but
of
the
microscope
,
which
research
had
begun
to
use
again
with
new
enthusiasm
of
reliance
.
Such
was
Lydgate
's
plan
of
his
future
:
to
do
good
small
work
for
Middlemarch
,
and
great
work
for
the
world
.
He
was
certainly
a
happy
fellow
at
this
time
:
to
be
seven-and-twenty
,
without
any
fixed
vices
,
with
a
generous
resolution
that
his
action
should
be
beneficent
,
and
with
ideas
in
his
brain
that
made
life
interesting
quite
apart
from
the
cultus
of
horseflesh
and
other
mystic
rites
of
costly
observance
,
which
the
eight
hundred
pounds
left
him
after
buying
his
practice
would
certainly
not
have
gone
far
in
paying
for
.
He
was
at
a
starting-point
which
makes
many
a
man
's
career
a
fine
subject
for
betting
,
if
there
were
any
gentlemen
given
to
that
amusement
who
could
appreciate
the
complicated
probabilities
of
an
arduous
purpose
,
with
all
the
possible
thwartings
and
furtherings
of
circumstance
,
all
the
niceties
of
inward
balance
,
by
which
a
man
swims
and
makes
his
point
or
else
is
carried
headlong
.
The
risk
would
remain
even
with
close
knowledge
of
Lydgate
's
character
;
for
character
too
is
a
process
and
an
unfolding
.
The
man
was
still
in
the
making
,
as
much
as
the
Middlemarch
doctor
and
immortal
discoverer
,
and
there
were
both
virtues
and
faults
capable
of
shrinking
or
expanding
.
The
faults
will
not
,
I
hope
,
be
a
reason
for
the
withdrawal
of
your
interest
in
him
.
Among
our
valued
friends
is
there
not
some
one
or
other
who
is
a
little
too
self-confident
and
disdainful
;
whose
distinguished
mind
is
a
little
spotted
with
commonness
;
who
is
a
little
pinched
here
and
protuberant
there
with
native
prejudices
;
or
whose
better
energies
are
liable
to
lapse
down
the
wrong
channel
under
the
influence
of
transient
solicitations
?
All
these
things
might
be
alleged
against
Lydgate
,
but
then
,
they
are
the
periphrases
of
a
polite
preacher
,
who
talks
of
Adam
,
and
would
not
like
to
mention
anything
painful
to
the
pew-renters
.
The
particular
faults
from
which
these
delicate
generalities
are
distilled
have
distinguishable
physiognomies
,
diction
,
accent
,
and
grimaces
;
filling
up
parts
in
very
various
dramas
.
Our
vanities
differ
as
our
noses
do
:
all
conceit
is
not
the
same
conceit
,
but
varies
in
correspondence
with
the
minutiae
of
mental
make
in
which
one
of
us
differs
from
another
.
Lydgate
's
conceit
was
of
the
arrogant
sort
,
never
simpering
,
never
impertinent
,
but
massive
in
its
claims
and
benevolently
contemptuous
.
He
would
do
a
great
deal
for
noodles
,
being
sorry
for
them
,
and
feeling
quite
sure
that
they
could
have
no
power
over
him
:
he
had
thought
of
joining
the
Saint
Simonians
when
he
was
in
Paris
,
in
order
to
turn
them
against
some
of
their
own
doctrines
.
All
his
faults
were
marked
by
kindred
traits
,
and
were
those
of
a
man
who
had
a
fine
baritone
,
whose
clothes
hung
well
upon
him
,
and
who
even
in
his
ordinary
gestures
had
an
air
of
inbred
distinction
.
Where
then
lay
the
spots
of
commonness
?
says
a
young
lady
enamoured
of
that
careless
grace
.
How
could
there
be
any
commonness
in
a
man
so
well-bred
,
so
ambitious
of
social
distinction
,
so
generous
and
unusual
in
his
views
of
social
duty
?
As
easily
as
there
may
be
stupidity
in
a
man
of
genius
if
you
take
him
unawares
on
the
wrong
subject
,
or
as
many
a
man
who
has
the
best
will
to
advance
the
social
millennium
might
be
ill-inspired
in
imagining
its
lighter
pleasures
;
unable
to
go
beyond
Offenbach
's
music
,
or
the
brilliant
punning
in
the
last
burlesque
.
Lydgate
's
spots
of
commonness
lay
in
the
complexion
of
his
prejudices
,
which
,
in
spite
of
noble
intention
and
sympathy
,
were
half
of
them
such
as
are
found
in
ordinary
men
of
the
world
:
that
distinction
of
mind
which
belonged
to
his
intellectual
ardor
,
did
not
penetrate
his
feeling
and
judgment
about
furniture
,
or
women
,
or
the
desirability
of
its
being
known
(
without
his
telling
)
that
he
was
better
born
than
other
country
surgeons
.
He
did
not
mean
to
think
of
furniture
at
present
;
but
whenever
he
did
so
it
was
to
be
feared
that
neither
biology
nor
schemes
of
reform
would
lift
him
above
the
vulgarity
of
feeling
that
there
would
be
an
incompatibility
in
his
furniture
not
being
of
the
best
.
As
to
women
,
he
had
once
already
been
drawn
headlong
by
impetuous
folly
,
which
he
meant
to
be
final
,
since
marriage
at
some
distant
period
would
of
course
not
be
impetuous
.
For
those
who
want
to
be
acquainted
with
Lydgate
it
will
be
good
to
know
what
was
that
case
of
impetuous
folly
,
for
it
may
stand
as
an
example
of
the
fitful
swerving
of
passion
to
which
he
was
prone
,
together
with
the
chivalrous
kindness
which
helped
to
make
him
morally
lovable
.
The
story
can
be
told
without
many
words
.
It
happened
when
he
was
studying
in
Paris
,
and
just
at
the
time
when
,
over
and
above
his
other
work
,
he
was
occupied
with
some
galvanic
experiments
.
One
evening
,
tired
with
his
experimenting
,
and
not
being
able
to
elicit
the
facts
he
needed
,
he
left
his
frogs
and
rabbits
to
some
repose
under
their
trying
and
mysterious
dispensation
of
unexplained
shocks
,
and
went
to
finish
his
evening
at
the
theatre
of
the
Porte
Saint
Martin
,
where
there
was
a
melodrama
which
he
had
already
seen
several
times
;
attracted
,
not
by
the
ingenious
work
of
the
collabourating
authors
,
but
by
an
actress
whose
part
it
was
to
stab
her
lover
,
mistaking
him
for
the
evil-designing
duke
of
the
piece
.
Lydgate
was
in
love
with
this
actress
,
as
a
man
is
in
love
with
a
woman
whom
he
never
expects
to
speak
to
.
She
was
a
Provencale
,
with
dark
eyes
,
a
Greek
profile
,
and
rounded
majestic
form
,
having
that
sort
of
beauty
which
carries
a
sweet
matronliness
even
in
youth
,
and
her
voice
was
a
soft
cooing
.
She
had
but
lately
come
to
Paris
,
and
bore
a
virtuous
reputation
,
her
husband
acting
with
her
as
the
unfortunate
lover
.
It
was
her
acting
which
was
"
no
better
than
it
should
be
,
"
but
the
public
was
satisfied
.
Lydgate
's
only
relaxation
now
was
to
go
and
look
at
this
woman
,
just
as
he
might
have
thrown
himself
under
the
breath
of
the
sweet
south
on
a
bank
of
violets
for
a
while
,
without
prejudice
to
his
galvanism
,
to
which
he
would
presently
return
.
But
this
evening
the
old
drama
had
a
new
catastrophe
.
At
the
moment
when
the
heroine
was
to
act
the
stabbing
of
her
lover
,
and
he
was
to
fall
gracefully
,
the
wife
veritably
stabbed
her
husband
,
who
fell
as
death
willed
.
A
wild
shriek
pierced
the
house
,
and
the
Provencale
fell
swooning
:
a
shriek
and
a
swoon
were
demanded
by
the
play
,
but
the
swooning
too
was
real
this
time
.
Lydgate
leaped
and
climbed
,
he
hardly
knew
how
,
on
to
the
stage
,
and
was
active
in
help
,
making
the
acquaintance
of
his
heroine
by
finding
a
contusion
on
her
head
and
lifting
her
gently
in
his
arms
.
Paris
rang
with
the
story
of
this
death
:
—
was
it
a
murder
?
Some
of
the
actress
's
warmest
admirers
were
inclined
to
believe
in
her
guilt
,
and
liked
her
the
better
for
it
(
such
was
the
taste
of
those
times
)
;
but
Lydgate
was
not
one
of
these
.
He
vehemently
contended
for
her
innocence
,
and
the
remote
impersonal
passion
for
her
beauty
which
he
had
felt
before
,
had
passed
now
into
personal
devotion
,
and
tender
thought
of
her
lot
.
The
notion
of
murder
was
absurd
:
no
motive
was
discoverable
,
the
young
couple
being
understood
to
dote
on
each
other
;
and
it
was
not
unprecedented
that
an
accidental
slip
of
the
foot
should
have
brought
these
grave
consequences
.
The
legal
investigation
ended
in
Madame
Laure
's
release
.
Lydgate
by
this
time
had
had
many
interviews
with
her
,
and
found
her
more
and
more
adorable
.
She
talked
little
;
but
that
was
an
additional
charm
.
She
was
melancholy
,
and
seemed
grateful
;
her
presence
was
enough
,
like
that
of
the
evening
light
.
Lydgate
was
madly
anxious
about
her
affection
,
and
jealous
lest
any
other
man
than
himself
should
win
it
and
ask
her
to
marry
him
.
But
instead
of
reopening
her
engagement
at
the
Porte
Saint
Martin
,
where
she
would
have
been
all
the
more
popular
for
the
fatal
episode
,
she
left
Paris
without
warning
,
forsaking
her
little
court
of
admirers
.
Perhaps
no
one
carried
inquiry
far
except
Lydgate
,
who
felt
that
all
science
had
come
to
a
stand-still
while
he
imagined
the
unhappy
Laure
,
stricken
by
ever-wandering
sorrow
,
herself
wandering
,
and
finding
no
faithful
comforter
.
Hidden
actresses
,
however
,
are
not
so
difficult
to
find
as
some
other
hidden
facts
,
and
it
was
not
long
before
Lydgate
gathered
indications
that
Laure
had
taken
the
route
to
Lyons
.
He
found
her
at
last
acting
with
great
success
at
Avignon
under
the
same
name
,
looking
more
majestic
than
ever
as
a
forsaken
wife
carrying
her
child
in
her
arms
.
He
spoke
to
her
after
the
play
,
was
received
with
the
usual
quietude
which
seemed
to
him
beautiful
as
clear
depths
of
water
,
and
obtained
leave
to
visit
her
the
next
day
;
when
he
was
bent
on
telling
her
that
he
adored
her
,
and
on
asking
her
to
marry
him
.
He
knew
that
this
was
like
the
sudden
impulse
of
a
madman
—
incongruous
even
with
his
habitual
foibles
.
No
matter
!
It
was
the
one
thing
which
he
was
resolved
to
do
.
He
had
two
selves
within
him
apparently
,
and
they
must
learn
to
accommodate
each
other
and
bear
reciprocal
impediments
.
Strange
,
that
some
of
us
,
with
quick
alternate
vision
,
see
beyond
our
infatuations
,
and
even
while
we
rave
on
the
heights
,
behold
the
wide
plain
where
our
persistent
self
pauses
and
awaits
us
.
To
have
approached
Laure
with
any
suit
that
was
not
reverentially
tender
would
have
been
simply
a
contradiction
of
his
whole
feeling
towards
her
.
"
You
have
come
all
the
way
from
Paris
to
find
me
?
"
she
said
to
him
the
next
day
,
sitting
before
him
with
folded
arms
,
and
looking
at
him
with
eyes
that
seemed
to
wonder
as
an
untamed
ruminating
animal
wonders
.
"
Are
all
Englishmen
like
that
?
"
"
I
came
because
I
could
not
live
without
trying
to
see
you
.
You
are
lonely
;
I
love
you
;
I
want
you
to
consent
to
be
my
wife
;
I
will
wait
,
but
I
want
you
to
promise
that
you
will
marry
me
—
no
one
else
.
"
Laure
looked
at
him
in
silence
with
a
melancholy
radiance
from
under
her
grand
eyelids
,
until
he
was
full
of
rapturous
certainty
,
and
knelt
close
to
her
knees
.
"
I
will
tell
you
something
,
"
she
said
,
in
her
cooing
way
,
keeping
her
arms
folded
.
"
My
foot
really
slipped
.
"
"
I
know
,
I
know
,
"
said
Lydgate
,
deprecatingly
.
"
It
was
a
fatal
accident
—
a
dreadful
stroke
of
calamity
that
bound
me
to
you
the
more
.
"
Again
Laure
paused
a
little
and
then
said
,
slowly
,
"
I
meant
to
do
it
.
"
Lydgate
,
strong
man
as
he
was
,
turned
pale
and
trembled
:
moments
seemed
to
pass
before
he
rose
and
stood
at
a
distance
from
her
.
"
There
was
a
secret
,
then
,
"
he
said
at
last
,
even
vehemently
.
"
He
was
brutal
to
you
:
you
hated
him
.
"
"
No
!
he
wearied
me
;
he
was
too
fond
:
he
would
live
in
Paris
,
and
not
in
my
country
;
that
was
not
agreeable
to
me
.
"
"
Great
God
!
"
said
Lydgate
,
in
a
groan
of
horror
.
"
And
you
planned
to
murder
him
?
"
"
I
did
not
plan
:
it
came
to
me
in
the
play
—
I
meant
to
do
it
.
"
Lydgate
stood
mute
,
and
unconsciously
pressed
his
hat
on
while
he
looked
at
her
.
He
saw
this
woman
—
the
first
to
whom
he
had
given
his
young
adoration
—
amid
the
throng
of
stupid
criminals
.
"
You
are
a
good
young
man
,
"
she
said
.
"
But
I
do
not
like
husbands
.
I
will
never
have
another
.
"
Three
days
afterwards
Lydgate
was
at
his
galvanism
again
in
his
Paris
chambers
,
believing
that
illusions
were
at
an
end
for
him
.
He
was
saved
from
hardening
effects
by
the
abundant
kindness
of
his
heart
and
his
belief
that
human
life
might
be
made
better
.
But
he
had
more
reason
than
ever
for
trusting
his
judgment
,
now
that
it
was
so
experienced
;
and
henceforth
he
would
take
a
strictly
scientific
view
of
woman
,
entertaining
no
expectations
but
such
as
were
justified
beforehand
.
No
one
in
Middlemarch
was
likely
to
have
such
a
notion
of
Lydgate
's
past
as
has
here
been
faintly
shadowed
,
and
indeed
the
respectable
townsfolk
there
were
not
more
given
than
mortals
generally
to
any
eager
attempt
at
exactness
in
the
representation
to
themselves
of
what
did
not
come
under
their
own
senses
.
Not
only
young
virgins
of
that
town
,
but
gray-bearded
men
also
,
were
often
in
haste
to
conjecture
how
a
new
acquaintance
might
be
wrought
into
their
purposes
,
contented
with
very
vague
knowledge
as
to
the
way
in
which
life
had
been
shaping
him
for
that
instrumentality
.
Middlemarch
,
in
fact
,
counted
on
swallowing
Lydgate
and
assimilating
him
very
comfortably
.
CHAPTER
XVI
.
"
All
that
in
woman
is
adored
In
thy
fair
self
I
find
—
For
the
whole
sex
can
but
afford
The
handsome
and
the
kind
.
"
—
SIR
CHARLES
SEDLEY
.
The
question
whether
Mr.
Tyke
should
be
appointed
as
salaried
chaplain
to
the
hospital
was
an
exciting
topic
to
the
Middlemarchers
;
and
Lydgate
heard
it
discussed
in
a
way
that
threw
much
light
on
the
power
exercised
in
the
town
by
Mr.
Bulstrode
.
The
banker
was
evidently
a
ruler
,
but
there
was
an
opposition
party
,
and
even
among
his
supporters
there
were
some
who
allowed
it
to
be
seen
that
their
support
was
a
compromise
,
and
who
frankly
stated
their
impression
that
the
general
scheme
of
things
,
and
especially
the
casualties
of
trade
,
required
you
to
hold
a
candle
to
the
devil
.
Mr.
Bulstrode
's
power
was
not
due
simply
to
his
being
a
country
banker
,
who
knew
the
financial
secrets
of
most
traders
in
the
town
and
could
touch
the
springs
of
their
credit
;
it
was
fortified
by
a
beneficence
that
was
at
once
ready
and
severe
—
ready
to
confer
obligations
,
and
severe
in
watching
the
result
.
He
had
gathered
,
as
an
industrious
man
always
at
his
post
,
a
chief
share
in
administering
the
town
charities
,
and
his
private
charities
were
both
minute
and
abundant
.
He
would
take
a
great
deal
of
pains
about
apprenticing
Tegg
the
shoemaker
's
son
,
and
he
would
watch
over
Tegg
's
church-going
;
he
would
defend
Mrs.
Strype
the
washerwoman
against
Stubbs
's
unjust
exaction
on
the
score
of
her
drying-ground
,
and
he
would
himself
scrutinize
a
calumny
against
Mrs.
Strype
.
His
private
minor
loans
were
numerous
,
but
he
would
inquire
strictly
into
the
circumstances
both
before
and
after
.
In
this
way
a
man
gathers
a
domain
in
his
neighbors
'
hope
and
fear
as
well
as
gratitude
;
and
power
,
when
once
it
has
got
into
that
subtle
region
,
propagates
itself
,
spreading
out
of
all
proportion
to
its
external
means
.
It
was
a
principle
with
Mr.
Bulstrode
to
gain
as
much
power
as
possible
,
that
he
might
use
it
for
the
glory
of
God
.
He
went
through
a
great
deal
of
spiritual
conflict
and
inward
argument
in
order
to
adjust
his
motives
,
and
make
clear
to
himself
what
God
's
glory
required
.
But
,
as
we
have
seen
,
his
motives
were
not
always
rightly
appreciated
.
There
were
many
crass
minds
in
Middlemarch
whose
reflective
scales
could
only
weigh
things
in
the
lump
;
and
they
had
a
strong
suspicion
that
since
Mr.
Bulstrode
could
not
enjoy
life
in
their
fashion
,
eating
and
drinking
so
little
as
he
did
,
and
worreting
himself
about
everything
,
he
must
have
a
sort
of
vampire
's
feast
in
the
sense
of
mastery
.
The
subject
of
the
chaplaincy
came
up
at
Mr.
Vincy
's
table
when
Lydgate
was
dining
there
,
and
the
family
connection
with
Mr.
Bulstrode
did
not
,
he
observed
,
prevent
some
freedom
of
remark
even
on
the
part
of
the
host
himself
,
though
his
reasons
against
the
proposed
arrangement
turned
entirely
on
his
objection
to
Mr.
Tyke
's
sermons
,
which
were
all
doctrine
,
and
his
preference
for
Mr.
Farebrother
,
whose
sermons
were
free
from
that
taint
.
Mr.
Vincy
liked
well
enough
the
notion
of
the
chaplain
's
having
a
salary
,
supposing
it
were
given
to
Farebrother
,
who
was
as
good
a
little
fellow
as
ever
breathed
,
and
the
best
preacher
anywhere
,
and
companionable
too
.
"
What
line
shall
you
take
,
then
?
"
said
Mr.
Chichely
,
the
coroner
,
a
great
coursing
comrade
of
Mr.
Vincy
's
.
"
Oh
,
I
'm
precious
glad
I
'm
not
one
of
the
Directors
now
.
I
shall
vote
for
referring
the
matter
to
the
Directors
and
the
Medical
Board
together
.
I
shall
roll
some
of
my
responsibility
on
your
shoulders
,
Doctor
,
"
said
Mr.
Vincy
,
glancing
first
at
Dr.
Sprague
,
the
senior
physician
of
the
town
,
and
then
at
Lydgate
who
sat
opposite
.
"
You
medical
gentlemen
must
consult
which
sort
of
black
draught
you
will
prescribe
,
eh
,
Mr.
Lydgate
?
"
"
I
know
little
of
either
,
"
said
Lydgate
;
"
but
in
general
,
appointments
are
apt
to
be
made
too
much
a
question
of
personal
liking
.
The
fittest
man
for
a
particular
post
is
not
always
the
best
fellow
or
the
most
agreeable
.
Sometimes
,
if
you
wanted
to
get
a
reform
,
your
only
way
would
be
to
pension
off
the
good
fellows
whom
everybody
is
fond
of
,
and
put
them
out
of
the
question
.
"
Dr.
Sprague
,
who
was
considered
the
physician
of
most
"
weight
,
"
though
Dr.
Minchin
was
usually
said
to
have
more
"
penetration
,
"
divested
his
large
heavy
face
of
all
expression
,
and
looked
at
his
wine-glass
while
Lydgate
was
speaking
.
Whatever
was
not
problematical
and
suspected
about
this
young
man
—
for
example
,
a
certain
showiness
as
to
foreign
ideas
,
and
a
disposition
to
unsettle
what
had
been
settled
and
forgotten
by
his
elders
—
was
positively
unwelcome
to
a
physician
whose
standing
had
been
fixed
thirty
years
before
by
a
treatise
on
Meningitis
,
of
which
at
least
one
copy
marked
"
own
"
was
bound
in
calf
.
For
my
part
I
have
some
fellow-feeling
with
Dr.
Sprague
:
one
's
self-satisfaction
is
an
untaxed
kind
of
property
which
it
is
very
unpleasant
to
find
deprecated
.
Lydgate
's
remark
,
however
,
did
not
meet
the
sense
of
the
company
.
Mr.
Vincy
said
,
that
if
he
could
have
his
way
,
he
would
not
put
disagreeable
fellows
anywhere
.
"
Hang
your
reforms
!
"
said
Mr.
Chichely
.
"
There
's
no
greater
humbug
in
the
world
.
You
never
hear
of
a
reform
,
but
it
means
some
trick
to
put
in
new
men
.
I
hope
you
are
not
one
of
the
'
Lancet
's
'
men
,
Mr.
Lydgate
—
wanting
to
take
the
coronership
out
of
the
hands
of
the
legal
profession
:
your
words
appear
to
point
that
way
.
"
"
I
disapprove
of
Wakley
,
"
interposed
Dr.
Sprague
,
"
no
man
more
:
he
is
an
ill-intentioned
fellow
,
who
would
sacrifice
the
respectability
of
the
profession
,
which
everybody
knows
depends
on
the
London
Colleges
,
for
the
sake
of
getting
some
notoriety
for
himself
.
There
are
men
who
do
n't
mind
about
being
kicked
blue
if
they
can
only
get
talked
about
.
But
Wakley
is
right
sometimes
,
"
the
Doctor
added
,
judicially
.
"
I
could
mention
one
or
two
points
in
which
Wakley
is
in
the
right
.
"
"
Oh
,
well
,
"
said
Mr.
Chichely
,
"
I
blame
no
man
for
standing
up
in
favour
of
his
own
cloth
;
but
,
coming
to
argument
,
I
should
like
to
know
how
a
coroner
is
to
judge
of
evidence
if
he
has
not
had
a
legal
training
?
"
"
In
my
opinion
,
"
said
Lydgate
,
"
legal
training
only
makes
a
man
more
incompetent
in
questions
that
require
knowledge
of
another
kind
.
People
talk
about
evidence
as
if
it
could
really
be
weighed
in
scales
by
a
blind
Justice
.
No
man
can
judge
what
is
good
evidence
on
any
particular
subject
,
unless
he
knows
that
subject
well
.
A
lawyer
is
no
better
than
an
old
woman
at
a
post-mortem
examination
.
How
is
he
to
know
the
action
of
a
poison
?
You
might
as
well
say
that
scanning
verse
will
teach
you
to
scan
the
potato
crops
.
"
"
You
are
aware
,
I
suppose
,
that
it
is
not
the
coroner
's
business
to
conduct
the
post-mortem
,
but
only
to
take
the
evidence
of
the
medical
witness
?
"
said
Mr.
Chichely
,
with
some
scorn
.
"
Who
is
often
almost
as
ignorant
as
the
coroner
himself
,
"
said
Lydgate
.
"
Questions
of
medical
jurisprudence
ought
not
to
be
left
to
the
chance
of
decent
knowledge
in
a
medical
witness
,
and
the
coroner
ought
not
to
be
a
man
who
will
believe
that
strychnine
will
destroy
the
coats
of
the
stomach
if
an
ignorant
practitioner
happens
to
tell
him
so
.
"
Lydgate
had
really
lost
sight
of
the
fact
that
Mr.
Chichely
was
his
Majesty
's
coroner
,
and
ended
innocently
with
the
question
,
"
Do
n't
you
agree
with
me
,
Dr.
Sprague
?
"
"
To
a
certain
extent
—
with
regard
to
populous
districts
,
and
in
the
metropolis
,
"
said
the
Doctor
.
"
But
I
hope
it
will
be
long
before
this
part
of
the
country
loses
the
services
of
my
friend
Chichely
,
even
though
it
might
get
the
best
man
in
our
profession
to
succeed
him
.
I
am
sure
Vincy
will
agree
with
me
.
"
"
Yes
,
yes
,
give
me
a
coroner
who
is
a
good
coursing
man
,
"
said
Mr.
Vincy
,
jovially
.
"
And
in
my
opinion
,
you
're
safest
with
a
lawyer
.
Nobody
can
know
everything
.
Most
things
are
'
visitation
of
God
.
'
And
as
to
poisoning
,
why
,
what
you
want
to
know
is
the
law
.
Come
,
shall
we
join
the
ladies
?
"
Lydgate
's
private
opinion
was
that
Mr.
Chichely
might
be
the
very
coroner
without
bias
as
to
the
coats
of
the
stomach
,
but
he
had
not
meant
to
be
personal
.
This
was
one
of
the
difficulties
of
moving
in
good
Middlemarch
society
:
it
was
dangerous
to
insist
on
knowledge
as
a
qualification
for
any
salaried
office
.
Fred
Vincy
had
called
Lydgate
a
prig
,
and
now
Mr.
Chichely
was
inclined
to
call
him
prick-eared
;
especially
when
,
in
the
drawing-room
,
he
seemed
to
be
making
himself
eminently
agreeable
to
Rosamond
,
whom
he
had
easily
monopolized
in
a
tete-a-tete
,
since
Mrs.
Vincy
herself
sat
at
the
tea-table
.
She
resigned
no
domestic
function
to
her
daughter
;
and
the
matron
's
blooming
good-natured
face
,
with
the
two
volatile
pink
strings
floating
from
her
fine
throat
,
and
her
cheery
manners
to
husband
and
children
,
was
certainly
among
the
great
attractions
of
the
Vincy
house
—
attractions
which
made
it
all
the
easier
to
fall
in
love
with
the
daughter
.
The
tinge
of
unpretentious
,
inoffensive
vulgarity
in
Mrs.
Vincy
gave
more
effect
to
Rosamond
's
refinement
,
which
was
beyond
what
Lydgate
had
expected
.
Certainly
,
small
feet
and
perfectly
turned
shoulders
aid
the
impression
of
refined
manners
,
and
the
right
thing
said
seems
quite
astonishingly
right
when
it
is
accompanied
with
exquisite
curves
of
lip
and
eyelid
.
And
Rosamond
could
say
the
right
thing
;
for
she
was
clever
with
that
sort
of
cleverness
which
catches
every
tone
except
the
humorous
.
Happily
she
never
attempted
to
joke
,
and
this
perhaps
was
the
most
decisive
mark
of
her
cleverness
.
She
and
Lydgate
readily
got
into
conversation
.
He
regretted
that
he
had
not
heard
her
sing
the
other
day
at
Stone
Court
.
The
only
pleasure
he
allowed
himself
during
the
latter
part
of
his
stay
in
Paris
was
to
go
and
hear
music
.
"
You
have
studied
music
,
probably
?
"
said
Rosamond
.
"
No
,
I
know
the
notes
of
many
birds
,
and
I
know
many
melodies
by
ear
;
but
the
music
that
I
do
n't
know
at
all
,
and
have
no
notion
about
,
delights
me
—
affects
me
.
How
stupid
the
world
is
that
it
does
not
make
more
use
of
such
a
pleasure
within
its
reach
!
"
"
Yes
,
and
you
will
find
Middlemarch
very
tuneless
.
There
are
hardly
any
good
musicians
.
I
only
know
two
gentlemen
who
sing
at
all
well
.
"
"
I
suppose
it
is
the
fashion
to
sing
comic
songs
in
a
rhythmic
way
,
leaving
you
to
fancy
the
tune
—
very
much
as
if
it
were
tapped
on
a
drum
?
"
"
Ah
,
you
have
heard
Mr.
Bowyer
,
"
said
Rosamond
,
with
one
of
her
rare
smiles
.
"
But
we
are
speaking
very
ill
of
our
neighbors
.
"
Lydgate
was
almost
forgetting
that
he
must
carry
on
the
conversation
,
in
thinking
how
lovely
this
creature
was
,
her
garment
seeming
to
be
made
out
of
the
faintest
blue
sky
,
herself
so
immaculately
blond
,
as
if
the
petals
of
some
gigantic
flower
had
just
opened
and
disclosed
her
;
and
yet
with
this
infantine
blondness
showing
so
much
ready
,
self-possessed
grace
.
Since
he
had
had
the
memory
of
Laure
,
Lydgate
had
lost
all
taste
for
large-eyed
silence
:
the
divine
cow
no
longer
attracted
him
,
and
Rosamond
was
her
very
opposite
.
But
he
recalled
himself
.
"
You
will
let
me
hear
some
music
to-night
,
I
hope
.
"
"
I
will
let
you
hear
my
attempts
,
if
you
like
,
"
said
Rosamond
.
"
Papa
is
sure
to
insist
on
my
singing
.
But
I
shall
tremble
before
you
,
who
have
heard
the
best
singers
in
Paris
.
I
have
heard
very
little
:
I
have
only
once
been
to
London
.
But
our
organist
at
St.
Peter
's
is
a
good
musician
,
and
I
go
on
studying
with
him
.
"
"
Tell
me
what
you
saw
in
London
.
"
"
Very
little
.
"
(
A
more
naive
girl
would
have
said
,
"
Oh
,
everything
!
"
But
Rosamond
knew
better
.
)
"
A
few
of
the
ordinary
sights
,
such
as
raw
country
girls
are
always
taken
to
.
"
"
Do
you
call
yourself
a
raw
country
girl
?
"
said
Lydgate
,
looking
at
her
with
an
involuntary
emphasis
of
admiration
,
which
made
Rosamond
blush
with
pleasure
.
But
she
remained
simply
serious
,
turned
her
long
neck
a
little
,
and
put
up
her
hand
to
touch
her
wondrous
hair-plaits
—
an
habitual
gesture
with
her
as
pretty
as
any
movements
of
a
kitten
's
paw
.
Not
that
Rosamond
was
in
the
least
like
a
kitten
:
she
was
a
sylph
caught
young
and
educated
at
Mrs.
Lemon
's
.
"
I
assure
you
my
mind
is
raw
,
"
she
said
immediately
;
"
I
pass
at
Middlemarch
.
I
am
not
afraid
of
talking
to
our
old
neighbors
.
But
I
am
really
afraid
of
you
.
"
"
An
accomplished
woman
almost
always
knows
more
than
we
men
,
though
her
knowledge
is
of
a
different
sort
.
I
am
sure
you
could
teach
me
a
thousand
things
—
as
an
exquisite
bird
could
teach
a
bear
if
there
were
any
common
language
between
them
.
Happily
,
there
is
a
common
language
between
women
and
men
,
and
so
the
bears
can
get
taught
.
"
"
Ah
,
there
is
Fred
beginning
to
strum
!
I
must
go
and
hinder
him
from
jarring
all
your
nerves
,
"
said
Rosamond
,
moving
to
the
other
side
of
the
room
,
where
Fred
having
opened
the
piano
,
at
his
father
's
desire
,
that
Rosamond
might
give
them
some
music
,
was
parenthetically
performing
"
Cherry
Ripe
!
"
with
one
hand
.
Able
men
who
have
passed
their
examinations
will
do
these
things
sometimes
,
not
less
than
the
plucked
Fred
.
"
Fred
,
pray
defer
your
practising
till
to-morrow
;
you
will
make
Mr.
Lydgate
ill
,
"
said
Rosamond
.
"
He
has
an
ear
.
"
Fred
laughed
,
and
went
on
with
his
tune
to
the
end
.
Rosamond
turned
to
Lydgate
,
smiling
gently
,
and
said
,
"
You
perceive
,
the
bears
will
not
always
be
taught
.
"
"
Now
then
,
Rosy
!
"
said
Fred
,
springing
from
the
stool
and
twisting
it
upward
for
her
,
with
a
hearty
expectation
of
enjoyment
.
"
Some
good
rousing
tunes
first
.
"
Rosamond
played
admirably
.
Her
master
at
Mrs.
Lemon
's
school
(
close
to
a
county
town
